All posts by mickeybarb@charter.net

OCP Launches New Online Service to Promote Agricultural Development

Morocco, News, News Briefs

OCP Group SA, Casablanca, has launched a new online service to promote agricultural development.

The new “Al Moutmir” website is an initiative that seeks to enable the Moroccan fertilizer group to share its expertise in the field of sustainable, smart agriculture, said OCP in a media statement. The new service will provide a platform to facilitate communication and exchange of expertise between partners and farmers, it said.

The new online service has been developed in collaboration with Morocco’s Ministry of Agriculture’s plans to modernize the country’s agricultural sector.

U.K.’s AIC Cautions on Solid Urea Ban, Sees Improved N Use Efficiency Alternative

News, News Briefs, United Kingdom, Urea

The U.K.’s Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) has urged the country’s government to give the fertilizer sector the opportunity to reduce ammonia emissions through an industry-led commitment, based around the principles of Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE), which it said will involve demonstrating delivery through a combination of FACTS Qualified Advice and farm assurance auditing.

The agri-trade organization believes a total ban on the sale and use of solid urea fertilizer – an option currently being considered by the U.K. government – is unwarranted.

“This industry-led approach would have many advantages over banning a nitrogen source from use,” said AIC’s Chief Executive Robert Sheasby. “With an end goal to achieve UK 2030 emissions targets, and mindful of all that livestock farmers will need to do on the manure management front, the fertilizer sector is stepping up to deliver its part in curbing ammonia emissions from urea-based fertilizer.”

The country’s National Farmers Union (NFU) also has urged Defra to adopt an “industry-regulated approach” to solid urea fertilizer rather than a total ban, which it said would have a “huge impact” on farmers’ ability to produce food (GM Jan. 29, p. 31).

The U.K. government on Jan. 26 closed its window for responses to its consultation seeking views on how the country’s farmers can reduce ammonia emissions from the use or sale of solid urea.

The consultation, launched on Nov. 3, presented three options: a total ban on solid urea fertilizers; a requirement to stabilize them with the addition of a urease inhibitor, a chemical that helps to slow the conversion of urea to ammonium (GM Jan 15, p. 36; Nov. 6, 2020); or restricting the spreading of solid urea fertilizers so that they can only be used from Jan. 15 to March 31.

The preferred option of the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is overseeing the consultation, is the complete ban on the use or sale of solid urea fertilizers.

AIC is the U.K. trade association representing the agricultural supply chain sectors of arable marketing, crop protection and agronomy, feed, fertilizer, and seeds.

Western Sahara Group Eyes Brazil Phosphate Rock Imports

Africa, News, News Briefs, Phosphate Rock

Belgium-based Sahara Research Watch (WSRW), which advocates for the rights of the Saharawi people of the disputed Western Sahara territory controlled by Morocco, released a report on Feb. 9 targeting recent phosphate rock from the territory that it believes has been imported into Brazil.

WSRW said it tracked three vessels in 2020 constituting 100,000 mt from Western Sahara that arrived in the port of Santos from April through December and was later transported by truck to an industrial site in Cubatao.

WSRW said the industrial storage site included at least three companies: Cesari Fertilizantes (Cefertil), part of Grupo Cesari; Copebras Industria Ltda., a phosphate miner and producer and a subsidiary of Chinese group China Molybdenum (CMOC); and Mosaic Fertilizantes.

According to WSRW, Cesari and Mosaic, which does business with Cesari, have said they do not use Western Sahara rock. WSRW is still awaiting word from Copebras.

WSRW said it has observed several shipments of Western Sahara rock since July 2019, with vessels arriving in the ports of Salvador, Antonina, and Santos.

Harvest Minerals Exits Brazilian Potash Project

Australia, Brazil, News, News Briefs, Potash, Specialty

Harvest Minerals, Perth, Australia, has opted to exit its proposed potash project in Capela, Sergipe, in northeast Brazil, according to a Bloomberg report. It will reportedly relinquish its exploration license back to Brazil’s National Mining Agency and incur no further expense or obligations with respect to the project.

Harvest Minerals will continue to focus on its Arapua Fertilizer Project in Minas Gerais (GM April 17, 2020), which produces KPfértil, an organic, multi-nutrient slow-release fertilizer and remineralizer made from weathered potassium and phosphate-rich lava. Harvest puts the indicated and inferred resource as 13.07 million mt at 3.1 percent K20 and 2.49 percent P205, with a mine life of over 100 years and production rate of 450,000 mt/y.

Corteva, Dadelos Agrosolutions Partner on Global Biostimulant Commercialization

News, News Briefs, Specialty

Crop protection and seed provider Corteva Agriscience, Wilmington, Del., and biostimulant developer Dadelos Agrosolutions SL, Valencia, Spain, an affiliate of Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Tokyo, on Feb. 11 announced an agreement to develop, validate, and commercialize biostimulants for farmers around the globe.

Corteva recently created a global biologicals portfolio dedicated to developing biostimulants, biocontrol, and pheromone products to work side-by-side with conventional crop protection solutions.

“This agreement furthers our commitment to offering farmers biologicals for crop protection, including a complete line of biostimulant solutions based on demonstrated effects and predictable results,” said Rajan Gajaria, Executive Vice President, Business Platforms, Corteva Agriscience. “Our agreement with Dadelos Agrosolutions is another step in demonstrating our efforts to building our biological portfolio by collaborating with the leading experts in their fields.”

“The technologies and crop solutions that we have been developing for the last 24 years aim to help the industry and the farmers to produce more food of better quality while reducing impact on the environment,” said Norbert Pons, CEO of Dadelos Agrosolutions.

“Our mission is a clear example of the Ajinomoto Group Creating Shared Value (ASV) and the philosophy of Ajinomoto to consistently engage in initiatives to solve social issues through business,” Pons added. “This agreement with Corteva Agriscience confirms the interest of our collaborators and clients for our science- based solutions, our capacity to innovate and our continuous efforts to constantly create added value for our customers around the world.”

Further details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Publicly traded Corteva Agriscience became an independent company on June 1, 2019 and was previously the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont.

Ajinomoto, a major food and biotechnology company, has offices in 35 countries and regions and sells products in more than 130 countries and regions. In fiscal 2019, sales were $10.1 billion.

Jera, Petronas Collaborate on Decarbonization

Japan, Malaysia, News, News Briefs

JERA Co. Inc. (JERA), a joint fuel procurement venture between Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, on Feb. 10 said it has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Malaysia’s national oil and natural gas company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), concerning cooperation in the decarbonization sector.

The MOU specifies that Jera and Petronas will discuss opportunities to cooperate in promoting the use of LNG in Asian countries and in establishing supply chains for ammonia and hydrogen fuels.

Jera has been working to achieve virtually zero CO2 emissions from its operations in Japan and overseas by 2050 through the expansion of renewable energy and the development of technologies for zero CO2 emission thermal power generation. It noted that it has a good relationship with Petronas through the sale and purchase of LNG over nearly 40 years.

Petronas is an ammonia producer and is considering the production of green ammonia and hydrogen. JERA believes there are many businesses in the LNG and decarbonization sectors in which the two companies can collaborate.

The companies plan a demonstration experiment over the next year in which coal and ammonia would be mixed and used as fuel for a thermal power plant, according to Nikkei Asia, and by the 2040s, Jera envisages only ammonia as its fuel for power generation.

New Indian Pipeline to Serve Idled Urea Plant

India, News, News Briefs, Urea

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Feb. 7 inaugurated the 348-km Dobhi-Durgapur natural gas pipeline built by GAIL India, according to the Press Trust of India. As a result, Essar Oil and Gas E&P Ltd. (EOGEPL) plans to ratchet up gas production at its Raniganj East Coal Bed Methane Block in West Bengal to serve the pipeline and also idled urea producer Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd. in Durgapur, West Bengal.

Matix commissioned its 1.3 million mt/y urea plant in 2017 (GM Oct. 6, 2017). However, it was eventually taken down due to a lack of feedstock. According to the Matix website, the plant has been well preserved and will be ready to restart as early as April 2021.

India’s CCEA Funds Urea Plant Rehab

India, News, News Briefs, Urea

India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Feb. 10 approved a proposal of the Department of Fertilizers for grant-in-aid of Rs.100 crore ($14 million) to Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizers Corp. Ltd. (BVFCL), Namrup, in Assam in northeast India, to sustain operations of its urea manufacturing units.

CCEA said at present, the company is operating its two vintage plants – Namrup-ll and Namrup-lll. It said it been difficult to maintain reasonable production levels from the existing units in a cost-effective manner because of their old and obsolete technology. As a result, CCEA approved the funding for repair and procurement of mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, and catalyst items. CCEA said it is hoping to restore BVFCL’s production to 390,000 mt/y.

Bunge Reports Strong Year for Fertilizer; 2021 Not Expected to Repeat

Earnings, News

Bunge Ltd., St. Louis, reported a strong year for fertilizer in 2020. For the year ending Dec. 31, the segment had adjusted EBIT of $85 million, up 37 percent from 2019’s $62 million. Volumes were up 2 percent to 1.54 million mt from the year-ago 1.51 million mt. Gross profit was $98 million on net sales of $484 million, up from 2019’s $78 million and $520 million, respectively.

Bunge expects fertilizer results to be down in 2021, from a strong year in 2020.

Fourth-quarter fertilizer results were more level with year-ago totals. Adjusted EBIT of $32 million matched the year-ago quarter. Volumes were 501,000 mt, up from 495,000 mt. Gross profit was $37 million on sales of $160 million, up from the year-ago $34 million and $165 million, respectively.

Company-wide, Bunge reported full-year net income attributable to the company of $1.15 billion ($7.71 per diluted share) on net sales of $41.4 billion, up from 2019’s loss of $1.28 billion ($9.34 per share) and $41.1 billion, respectively. Total EBIT was $1.63 billion, up from the year-ago loss of $891 million.

Fourth-quarter net income was $551 million ($3.74 per share) on sales of $12.6 billion, up from the year-ago loss of $51 million ($0.48 per share) and $10.8 billion, respectively. Total EBIT was $714 million, up from the year-ago $44 million.

Bunge posted earnings that topped analyst expectations, benefiting from record corn and soybean exports in the fourth quarter and strong margins for oilseed processing.

As with fertilizer, Bunge does not expect to best 2020 on a company-wide basis, anticipating full-year 2021 adjusted EPS of $6.00 compared to 2020’s $8.30.

CEO Greg Heckman cautioned that uncertainty over crop size and harvest timing in South America, as well as the upcoming North American growing season, will help to determine how well Bunge performs this year. However, he said the company expects the favorable market environment to continue into 2021, reflecting strong and growing demand, as well as tight supplies.

Ma’aden Reports FY20 Loss

Earnings, News, Saudi Arabia

Ma’aden reported a full-year 2020 net loss of SAR209 million (approximately $55.7 million at current exchange rates), a narrowing from the SAR739.5 million net loss posted in FY2019, the company said in a Feb. 3 filing to the Saudi stock exchange.

Sales increased 5 percent to SAR18.6 billion, up from the previous year’s SAR17.7 billion. The company attributed the year-over-year increase to higher sales volumes of all products except alumina and industrial minerals, which it said offset decreased average prices of all products except gold. An increased share of net profit from joint ventures also contributed.