While Russian producers will prioritize domestic sales to meet usage there, they’re able to boost output to satisfy additional European demand, the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers said in a statement, according to a Bloomberg report.
Russian farmers have already completed 95 percent of their purchases for this year. The group said there is no shortage of fertilizers on the domestic market, including ammonium nitrate.
Hungary fined eight fertilizer companies, most of them affiliated with Nitrogenmuvek Zrt., 14.1b forint (US$45 million) for allegedly participating in a cartel, according to a statement from GVH, the state competition authority, reported Bloomberg.
Fines levied against six companies of Nitrogenmuvek, as well as Cargill Magyarorszag Zrt. and Hogyeszi Agrokemiai Kft. Nitrogenmuvek did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
An executive with The Mosaic Co., Tampa, said Brazil farmers should expect high fertilizer prices for the rest of the year, according to a Bloomberg report. “We don’t see room for prices to fall through the year-end amid this scenario of uncertainties,” said Mosaic’s Eduardo Monteiro, Commercial Vice President in Brazil. “Farmers need to make decisions now to have crop nutrients delivered for Brazil’s winter crops at the beginning of next year. They don’t have much time to postpone it.”
About 40 percent of the fertilizers expected to be used in Brazil’s winter crops – especially corn and cotton – have not been bought yet, while coffee farmers have not bought about 30 percent of the nutrients that should be applied by the end of the year. The agricultural superpower, the top exporter of sugar and coffee and No. 2 supplier of corn, needs to buy around 80 percent of its fertilizer requirements.
While the Mosaic executive said there’s no lack of fertilizers in Brazil nowadays, some delays on deliveries have occurred because of logistical bottlenecks at ports. However, he said that is not the case for Mosaic, which operates through private terminals in the two biggest Brazilian ports, Santos and Paranagua.
Fertilizer deliveries in Brazil are expected to reach a record high of about 45 million mt this year, up 11 percent from last year. Rising demand in the South American nation and other agriculture producers such China and India have bolstered global prices during the past year. Now, factors such as sanctions against Belarus’s state-owned potash producer and China’s decision to limit exports are supporting the boom, he said.
Still, fertilizer sales are slower than usual for the coming 2022-23 season as surging fertilizer costs have reduced farmers’ margins compared to the two previous seasons. But Brazilians are still making profits from crop sales.
“Our advice for farmers is to lock in fertilizer purchases gradually and have a safe supply chain,” Monteiro said in an interview.
Junior salt and sulfate of potash (SOP) producer BCI Minerals Ltd., Perth, on Oct. 15 announced that it has received approvals, subject to conditions, for A$740 million of project finance debt for the Mardie Project.
Total funding of approximately $1.2 billion is required to develop the project to a capacity of 5.35 million mt/y of salt and 140,000 mt/y of SOP. This includes all construction, contingency, funding, interest, and ramp-up costs and will be funded by the $740 million debt package and approximately $460 million in equity from a combination of existing BCI cash, ongoing Iron Valley royalty earnings, potential corporate debt and new equity.
The $740 million includes a $490 million 15-year loan facility from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), a 10-year $110 million loan facility from the Export Finance Australia (EFA) and credit approvals from two leading commercial banks to provide a $140 million construction loan with a 7.5 year term, plus $170 million facilities for cost overrun and guarantee requirements.
Spain’s Grupo Fertiberia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with Sweden’s Norrbotten Region and Invest in Norrbotten, aimed at developing what it said will be the world’s first plant for the production of 100 percent green ammonia and fertilizers. The plant will be powered with renewable energy from wind and hydropower sources, Invest in Norrbotten reported.
The initiative, known as “Green Wolverine,” envisages ammonia production of 1,500 mt/d. The plant will be built in Lulea-Boden, in Norrbotten, and is targeted to be operational by 2026.
Norwegian cooperative Felleskjopet, Oslo, has temporarily stopped selling mineral fertilizer as wild swings in prices set by suppliers hamper its ability to price the goods, according to Bloomberg.
The wholesaler, owned by 44,000 farmers, said it will concentrate on delivering what it has already sold until the end of the year and will resume sales when the situation around prices and production has stabilized. It said it has been assured by Norway-based Yara International ASA that it will prioritize the Norwegian market, ensuring farmers receive the fertilizer needed for the 2022 growing season.
Some 27 hopper cars on a 200 car Canadian Pacific train derailed over the weekend near Silton, Sask., about 45 kilometers from Regina, according to CBC News, citing the Transportation Safety Board (TSB), which is investigating the incident. Some of the potash was reported to have spilled from the cars.
OCP SA, Casablanca, and ICL Group Ltd., Tel Aviv, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to offer funding to support sustainability programs and research at Morocco’s Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU),
This support will enable both universities to formalize scientific collaboration through the promotion of exchange opportunities for academic and professional staff and students, ICL said in a statement.
More specifically, this partnership will enable scientific and technical exports from the two institutions to consult and collaborate on sustainability initiatives, the Israeli group said.
OCP will provide initial funding of $300,000 to UM6P, while ICL will provide $300,000 to BGU.
Sri Lanka is importing Nano Urea Liquid, the new fertilizer product developed and launched earlier this year by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO).
The first shipment of Nano Urea Liquid arrived in Sri Lanka this week, according to a report by Sri Lanka’s Newsfirst outlet.
According to India’s The Hindu newspaper, Sri Lanka is set to import a total of 3.1 million litres for use in the cultivation of maize and rice. However, it is unclear over what time period the imports will be made.
IFFCO began production of Nano Urea Liquid in June at its facility in Kalol in India’s Gujarat state (GM June 4, p. 32). In August, the fertilizer cooperative was reported to be seeking permission from India’s government to export the new product (GM Aug. 13, p. 36).
The Newsfirst report cited Sri Lanka’s Agriculture Secretary, Udith K. Jayasinghe, as indicating the Nano Urea Liquid emerging as “a promising alternative” that ensures high crop production and soil restoration.”
IFFCO has conducted several thousands of farmer field trials on more than 94 crops across India. Initial results showed an 8 percent increase in yield, according to the cooperative (GM June 4. p. 32).
It is unclear if the decision to import Nano Urea Liquid is a further waffling by Sri Lanka’s government on the presidential decree earlier this year to limit fertilizer imports to only organic fertilizers (GM May 7, p. 42).
Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in April implemented an immediate ban on chemical fertilizer imports, in pursuit of a strategy to see the country become the world’s first 100 percent organic food producer. Critics claimed the decision was driven primarily by the need to address the country’s foreign exchange crisis.
There were reports in August that Sri Lanka’s government had overturned the presidential decree in order to allow for the import of products such as ammonia and other liquid nitrogen because the products are needed to produce organic fertilizer (GM Aug. 6, p. 38).
According to The Hindu report, Sri Lanka’s government “in recent weeks” has allowed the import of certain chemical fertilizers, such as ammonium sulfate, following concerns from the country’s tea producers about the falling quality of tea produced, a key export crop, and from certain other crop producers.
IFFCO claimed that Nano Urea Liquid is a sustainable solution for nutrition of crops, saying it will encourage balanced soil nutrition by cutting off the excessive use of traditional urea and making plants healthier, stronger, and safeguarding them from the effect of lodging. The cooperative said the product could cut conventional urea used by at least 50 percent.
KCKK, a subsidiary of Uralchem JSC, Moscow, has completed commissioning of a project at its Kirovo-Chepetsk production site aimed at producing almost waste-free production of calcium nitrate, Uralchem said late last week.
“During the production of calcium nitrate, at the stage of purification of impurities, a sediment – typically known as ‘cake’ – is formed. This cake is removed from the technological cycle at the filtration unit and previously was partly used in the production of calcium ammonium nitrate as a filler, and partly sent for storage,” Uralchem explained in its statement.
For the implementation of this project, special filter presses were purchased (from Eppingen, Germany-based Dieffenbacher Group), and the reactor equipment was modified. Now, all the cake components will be first separated in a new technological process and then returned to the calcium nitrate and complex fertilizers production cycle, the Russian fertilizer group said.
According to Uralchem, the project technology has not yet been tested anywhere else. It put the project cost at RUB174 million (approximately $2.45 million at current exchange rates).
