CF Industries Holdings Inc. said Oct. 26 that its new ammonia plant at the company’s Donaldsonville, La., Nitrogen Complex was started-up in September 2016, and has now achieved consistent, stable operation over the nameplate capacity of approximately 3,600 st/d. The plant has produced more than 50,000 st of ammonia since start-up.

This is the final new plant to be commissioned and started-up as part of CF’s capacity expansion project at Donaldsonville. CF said it is the largest ammonia plant by nameplate capacity in the world, sharing that distinction with three ammonia plants in Saudi Arabia.

“The start-up of the new ammonia plant signals the completion of our Donaldsonville capacity expansion project,” said Tony Will, CF president and CEO. “With all three new plants from the expansion running consistently at or above nameplate capacities, Donaldsonville’s expanded asset base and unmatched logistics capabilities are ideally positioned to serve customers in North America and around the world, while strengthening our cash generation now and into the future.”

Total annual gross ammonia capacity at Donaldsonville is now 4.3 million st, up from 3.1 million st previously. The Donaldsonville complex has flexibility to switch production from merchant ammonia to upgraded products, so the actual mix of net ammonia and upgraded products for sale will vary based on market conditions.

With the commissioning and start-up of the new ammonia plant, the Donaldsonville complex is now the largest nitrogen facility in the world.

PCI Nitrogen LLC, Pasadena, Texas, today applauded the preliminary determination of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) that imports of ammonium sulfate into the United States from China are being subsidized.

DOC on Oct. 25 released its preliminary determination in the subsidy investigations, finding that imports of ammonium sulfate from China were subsidized at a rate of 206.72 percent ad valorem. As a result, DOC will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Customs) to begin collecting cash deposits or bonds on imports of ammonium sulfate from China equal to the preliminary subsidy rates.

“We welcome the U.S. government’s determination that our competitors benefit from substantial government subsidies,” said PCI Nitrogen in a statement. “Domestic producers and employees have been severely injured by dumped and subsidized imports from China, and the imposition of countervailing duties is a critical step in remedying these unfair trade practices.”

DOC is due to issue its preliminary determinations in the companion antidumping investigations by Nov. 1, 2016. The petitions filed with the U.S. government allege that imports from China are being dumped at rates between 251 and 493 percent ad valorem. Customs will collect estimated antidumping duties from importers following the issuance of these preliminary determinations in November.

Countervailing and antidumping duties are imposed cumulatively, meaning the aggregate remedial duties are expected to increase after the preliminary antidumping investigations. Final determinations in both the subsidies and antidumping investigations are expected by mid-January 2017.

PCI Nitrogen said it will be actively working with Customs to ensure that importers fully comply with their obligation to pay the additional duties imposed as a result of these investigations. The company noted that the failure by importers to declare entries as being subject to antidumping and countervailing duties undermines the relief for these unfair trade practices and may result in severe civil or criminal penalties, including imprisonment.

LSB Industries Inc. said Oct. 19 that its Pryor, Okla., ammonia plant resumed production Oct. 8. The company had announced Oct. 5 (GM Oct. 7, p. 15) that the plant was down as a scheduled turnaround had been extended to perform additional work on both the ammonia and urea plants in order to increase their reliability going forward. It earlier said the plant was expected back up by Oct. 10.

LSB expects Pryor’s urea plant to return to service by Nov. 1, which will enable the facility to resume production of UAN. On Oct. 5, LSB had expected the urea plant to be back up by Oct. 15, however, it said the delay was a result of the inspection process by the welding contractor’s Authorized Inspector (AI), which is responsible for ensuring that work on pressure vessels meets federal and state codes. In addition to addressing the increased scope of work dictated by the AI related to corrosion in the urea plant’s pressure vessel and liner, LSB has elected to implement design changes to the vessel’s liner in order to minimize future corrosion and related downtime.

LSB expects the additional downtime related to this work on Pryor’s urea plant to have little to no impact on LSB’s fourth quarter 2016 EBITDA above what was disclosed Oct. 5.

BASF reported Oct. 18 that the fire at its Ludwigshafen site was extinguished around 9:30 p.m. Oct. 17. The company now says two employees, both company firefighters, died as a result of the fire. Eight people were seriously injured and 17 others received light injuries. One person is still missing.

BASF said that the explosion occurred during work on a pipeline. The pipelines that burned included ones with ethylene and propylene product.

BASF said that since the raw material supply is still interrupted, the steam crackers remain shut down. Around 20 other plants are either shutdown or only partially running at the large chemical complex.

United Suppliers Inc., Ames, Iowa, has closed on a deal to buy the assets of Evans Enterprises LLC, Olathe, Kan., an ammonium chloride fertilizer business based in Olathe, Kan. The business includes patented technology used in fertilizer products that provide both nitrogen and chloride to cereal-grain crops, including corn, grain sorghum and wheat. These products are most frequently used on crops grown in the western U.S. to increase their yield potential.

United Suppliers said the technology will align with its existing crop nutrients offerings to meet the specific needs of growers in the Great Plains looking to increase yields and profits.

Current Evans Enterprises employees will join the United Suppliers team and operations are expected to continue uninterrupted with United Suppliers taking over day-to-day operations effective immediately.

A major explosion was reported at a BASF manufacturing site today in Ludwigshafen, Germany, with one employee killed and at least six others missing, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The cause of the explosion and the chemicals released into the atmosphere have not been reported. BASF halted both steam crackers and some other production facilities at the scene and said at the press conference a total of 14 facilities have been affected. The blast took place at the chemical park’s Landhafen Nord site at about 11:30 a.m. local time while work was taking place on piping, the company said.

Israel Chemicals Ltd. will close down its potash project in Ethiopia and take a $170 million write off, the company said Oct. 6. It said it may take additional write offs at a later stage. The $170 million figure is the book value of the investment in the Ethiopian potash project.

In recent weeks, ICL has been indicating that it has been winding down activities with respect to the project. ICL said in its announcement that the Ethiopian government’s actions were behind the decision to close down operations in the country.

In 2015, ICL acquired all outstanding shares of Allana Potash that it did not already own for C$137 million which gave it control of the Danakhil mine in northeastern Ethiopia. At the time plans called for mining 1 million mt of potash. The planned investment in the mine and related infrastructure was put at $600 million.