Brothers, Ore. — It took Oregon State Patrol two days to get traffic running normally on Highway 20E east of here after a tanker truck carrying about 46,000 pounds of liquid urea fertilizer crashed and overturned on April 18. According to state troopers, the commercial truck pulling a tanker trailer loaded with the fertilizer was eastbound early in the evening when it drifted onto the gravel shoulder. After a complete highway closure for about two hours, one lane was opened for traffic when it was determined safe for motorists to travel through the area. The driver, who was later cited for failure to maintain a lane of travel, lost control, and his load eventually rolled at least once before coming to rest along the shoulder. Press reports stated that he was driving for Sherman Brothers, a trucking firm based in Harrisburg, Ore. Tom Kichenmaster with SMAF Environmental, a hazardous materials company in Prineville that handled the cleanup, said 150 gallons or so of the fertilizer load leaked from an opening in the tanker and had to be removed with the soil and hauled to a landfill. He said the main part was pumped into another tanker and hauled away.
All posts by webster@kennedyinfo.com
Biosolids turn Calif. wastewater plant greener
Carlsbad, Calif. — The Encina Wastewater Authority plant here claims to be one of the greener – if not the greenest – treatment facility in the country. Virtually nothing goes out the other end that can’t be reused. That includes recently collaborating with Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technology to remove phosphorus buildup in piping and machinery that reduces plant efficiency and increases maintenance cost. “Ostara, which will market the phosphorus as fertilizer, will mine out our discharge water from the centrifuges,” explained Eric Have, Encina biosolids sales and marketing manager. “It doesn’t affect our system taking the discharge water through the plant again. Just another way of utilizing everything that comes into our plant and helping us to run at about 96 or 97 percent efficiency. We don’t have anything left over.” In addition, as of Feb. 1 Encina has started switching over from providing a cement plant biosolids for incinerating to producing higher-value biosolids fertilizer for golf courses and other users. Have said that 6,500 tons per year of 5.7-7-0 Class A EQ (exceptional quality) biosolids are being produced and shipped all over the United States. “We have customers who want our PureGreen in Arkansas but haven’t gotten to them as yet,” Have reported. At the same time, Encina provides 3.5 million gallons of recycled water every day to the city of Carlsbad. General Manager Kevin Hardy noted that the technology is part of a growing trend of wastewater treatment facilities finding value in biosolids as “wastewater facilities are starting to see their purpose can go beyond treating wastewater, realizing that environmental benefits that are profitable can be extracted onsite.” Encina, which serves more than 350,000 North County residents, is owned by six public agencies under a joint powers agreement to share in the costs and management to get more economical and high-tech facilities than they could on their own.
Plant to help keep manure out of lake
Maria Stein, Ohio — Amiran Technologies will be building a $12 million manure processing plant to help keep farm runoff from polluting nearby Grand Lake St. Mary. Amiran, an Oak Creek, Wisc., green technology company, describes the plant as a revolutionary undertaking to process swine, poultry, and dairy livestock manure into dry organic fertilizer for commercial sale. The product will be pathogen and e coli free and will be priced competitively with commercial fertilizers on the market. “Amiran’s AG Conversions Division will be breaking ground this spring for the new 30,000-square foot plant and a 7,000-square foot visitor and research center on a 10-acre site on Highway 127 south of Celina,” said Paul Chadwick, the company’s executive vice president of business development. Chadwick was on hand at a workshop recently to discuss the project with a group of area farmers and officials in Maria Stein. Chadwick said the plant will employ about 60 full-time workers and about another 180 indirect workers. They hope to start production this August. According to Amiran, the facility will be the only one of its kind in the world, representing the upstream component of the company’s two-tiered plan to help clean up the watershed. The company is also proceeding to have a mobile facility that will turn the material dredged from the lake and currently stored on state owned or leased land into high quality, organic potting soil for sale to the public. “This technology is so new and proprietary, we hope to replicate this in other areas of the country and world where waterways are polluted,” Chadwick said. No details were available on the technology, but the announcement stated that the AG Conversions Grand Lake St. Marys watershed facility will have the capacity to produce close to 600,000 tons of dry organic fertilizer each year. Since this is cutting-edge technology developed by Dr. Mohsen Amiran, the company’s chief scientific officer, to mitigate and minimize the harmful effects of phosphorus from farm manure runoff on the health of lakes and streams with the goal of reducing the toxic blue-green algae blooms, it is the goal of the company’s visitor and research center to attract and educate people from around the world who are seeking solutions to similar environmental problems. Amiran Technologies, LLC, is an innovative technology development company specializing in providing ecologically sound, cost effective solutions for the decontamination and beneficial reuse of industrial and agricultural waste streams worldwide. Amiran targets contaminated soil and sediment remediation, metal recovery from process wastes, flame retardants, agricultural products from livestock waste streams, and industrial cleaners.
Senate committee passes new Farm Bill
Washington — The Senate Agriculture Committee passed a five-year, half trillion-dollar farm bill April 26 that would cut spending by $23-$25 billion, eliminate some $5 billion per year direct payments to farmers, and rely on new crop insurance programs for a farm safety net. Conservation programs would also be consolidated under the bill, saving some $6.5 billion, and another $4 billion in savings would be gleaned from closing loopholes in public nutrition programs. The bill drew favorable comments from farm groups, but not from environmental organizations such as the Environmental Working Group, which said the bill would “provide unprecedented revenue guarantees on top of unlimited insurance guarantees.” The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) sent a letter on April 11 to House and Senate Ag Committee leaders asking them to consider several changes while drafting the new farm bill, including preserving the crop insurance program but extending the preventable planting date to reflect advances in improved technologies; including the “Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011” (H.R. 872) to protect pesticide applicators who are in compliance with FIFRA from Clean Water Act liability; and reducing the authorized acreage in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) by requiring the majority tract offered to be designated as highly erosive land. ARA also requested a number of tax provisions in the new farm bill, including the continuation of a 30 percent tax credit established in 2008 available to those agricultural businesses that invest in chemical security measures, and setting the agricultural equipment depreciation schedule to five instead of the current seven years. “Considering the budgetary constraints our country currently faces, you will undoubtedly have difficult items to consider in putting this legislation together and ARA greatly appreciates your efforts,” the letter said. “However, it is with a strong level of concern that we urge you to pass a Farm Bill in 2012 that will last through 2017 in order to provide certainty to those involved in feeding, fueling, and clothing the nation.” The House has not yet established a timeline for when it might act on its version of the bill, but has bandied about proposals that would cut as much as $33 billion, including a large reduction in spending for food stamps.
Maumee upgrades announced by The Andersons
Maumee, Ohio — The Andersons Inc. Plant Nutrient Group on April 27 announced the completion of efforts to expand and modernize its dry bulk storage, blending, and load out capabilities at its Maumee, Ohio, facility. The company said extensive work was completed to the interior of the existing arch building structure to provide space for six bulk fertilizer products while increasing the overall storage capacity to 61,000 tons. A load out building was also added to the side of the arch building, and two Waconia fertilizer towers were installed. “This new equipment will allow our customers to get in and out of our plant more quickly and enable them to complete more trips in a day,” said Al Bensch, vice president of Northern Operations for the Plant Nutrient Group. “The covered load out also allows us to load trucks in any weather.” The new facility has been in operation since the beginning of April. The Andersons held an open house in late March so customers and suppliers could get a firsthand look at the improvements. CEO Mike Anderson commented at the Open House that “this investment is a part of The Andersons’ overall ongoing commitment to modernizing all of our facilities to better serve agriculture.”
House approves surface transportation bill
Washington — The U.S. House of Representatives recently approved another short-term surface transportation reauthorization bill (H.R. 4348), but according to the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA), the proposal does not include the hazardous materials reform provisions that had been included in the “American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act” (H.R. 7), which was approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in February. ARA said H.R. 4348 also does not include the hours of service (HOS) agricultural exemption technical corrections that were included in H.R. 7. ARA joined The Fertilizer Institute and a coalition of industry groups on April 18 in sending a letter to all House members urging their support for the hazardous materials provision. “The hazardous materials provisions in HR 7 address a number of reforms that will improve safety and will eliminate mismanaged earmarks as well as unnecessary regulatory burdens,” the letter states. “These reforms address long-standing issues such as DOT’s special permits and approvals program, the hazardous materials safety permit program, cargo tank wetlines, NTSB and CSB recommendations, state permitting and hazmat routing, user fees, hazmat training and handling requirements, and civil penalties. These provisions do not add to the cost of surface transportation programs.” ARA noted that the Senate’s multi-year surface transportation bill (S. 1813), passed on March 14, also does not include any of the hazardous materials reform provisions, although it does include the ARA-backed HOS ag exemption language. ARA said Senate and House leaders will soon appoint members to negotiate on a conference report. “The House will be at a significant disadvantage advocating for these reforms if it goes to conference when neither the House nor the Senate bills contain policy on these matters,” the April 18 letter said. “With no comparable provisions, these issues will not be within the scope of the conference.”
Ammonia
U.S. Gulf/Tampa: At the start of the day, Friday, April 27, there was still no word on new business being concluded for Tampa for May. Major players were reported to still be at odds over prices, and a conclusion could linger until after press time or into the next week.
Much of the focus has been on the recent increase in prices at Yuzhnyy, specifically the prior week’s news that PotashCorp bought 25,000 mt on the Elversele from Transammonia at $460/mt FOB for the U.S. Gulf, for delivery to Geismar in mid-May. Sources put freight rates in the mid-$90s/mt, which would take the delivered price up to about $555/mt.
As a result of this business, sources said Yara would undoubtedly be looking for a significant boost to its Tampa number for April, which was $470/mt DEL. Some predicted that Yara would not try to make up the difference all in one month, but over two months.
On the one hand, Mosaic, which has just had to agree to pay higher sulfur prices for the second quarter, is likely trying hard to hold the line on ammonia prices. On the other hand, Yara likely noticed that Mosaic has upgraded its projections for phosphate and potash sales for the current quarter, meaning the company could better afford a price increase.
Eastern Cornbelt: Earlier reports of preplant ammonia movement winding down may have been premature, sources reported last week. Although sidedress demand was still a good ten days away, sources reported a number of ammonia terminal outages again last week. One contact said growers are opting to plant more corn instead of soybeans in many areas, so that acreage shift is reportedly giving the preplant ammonia run a long tale this spring.
Sources quoted ammonia pricing at $740-$750/st FOB regional terminals for any available prompt tons, with the low in Illinois and the upper end in the Indiana market. Several locations were reportedly sold out, with others offering only limited tons.
Western Cornbelt: Ammonia continued to move in preplant applications on corn in late April, and tight inventories resulted in firming prices out of Western Cornbelt terminals. Sources quoted the market at $650-$660/st FOB Nebraska terminals for available tons at midweek, while dealer pricing out of some shipping points in the Iowa and Missouri markets had reported firmed to $710-$720/st FOB for limited prompt tons.
Southern Plains: Anhydrous ammonia was reported at $570-$610/st FOB production points in the Southern Plains region, with the low reported FOB Enid, Okla., and the upper end out of Pryor and Verdigris, Okla., for limited tons. Sources pegged the market FOB Kansas pipeline points in the $600-$610/st FOB range last week.
South Central: With prompt tons sold out at both Memphis, Tenn., and Henderson, Ky., sources reported no current prices for anhydrous ammonia out of terminals in the South Central region. Sources said replacement tons are inbound at Memphis, but only to cover prepay orders, so there will be no spot ammonia available out of that market in the near term.
Urea
U.S. Gulf: “Time is money” is the saying, and that was pretty much the way it was on the NOLA granular urea market last week.
Prompt barges that were loaded and ready to go were garnering a significant premium over those that were due to load within the next few weeks. Prices were generally called $715-$740/st FOB, with unconfirmed reports that $750/st FOB was achieved. The most common number heard was $730/st FOB. Sources said the higher end of the range represented barges ready to sail, while the lower end was for those to be loaded.
Prices into May and June saw gradual erosion, though some predicted that these could show more strength as the market gets guidance on further demand, particularly for rice country.
A Yara vessel slated for June has been delayed until July. Another was expected to unload in first half May.
Eastern Cornbelt: The granular urea market was quoted at $750-$775/st FOB regional terminals for prompt pull, with the upper end reported in the Ohio market on a spot basis and the low quoted in the Illinois market. Urea inventories remained very tight in the region. One source said some suppliers were offering forward tons at $690-$705/st for mid-to-late May.
Western Cornbelt: Sources pegged the granular urea market at $740-$760/st FOB regional terminals for available tons, but inventories were described as sparse in the Western Cornbelt. One source quoted the common dealer market in the region solidly at the $750/st FOB mark in late April.
Southern Plains: Urea inventories remained tight out of Southern Plains terminals. The market was pegged at $730-$740/st FOB Catoosa, Okla., for any available tons.
Sources described the Catoosa market as tight last week due to brisk demand and some restrictions on commercial barge traffic on the Arkansas River. With limited spot tons available, there were reports that some resellers are hesitant to commit to replacement tons for fear of a price collapse and ending the season with excess inventory.
South Central: Several sources said demand was in a brief lull between the heavy corn planting push and the rice and cotton season. Urea demand for the first application on rice was just starting in southwestern Louisiana, but most other locations were still a week to ten days away from heavy demand.
Urea pricing and availability remained the “center focus” for many dealers, as one source described it last week, and caution was a key part of that focus. “We’re working as close to the vest as we can,” said one source. “It’s just-in-time delivery, and we don’t want any more than we need.”
Out of regional terminals, the granular urea market was quoted at $735-$760/st FOB, with the low reported in Louisiana and the upper end out of the Memphis market. Several Arkansas sources pegged the common dealer price for urea solidly at the $750/st FOB mark last week.
Southeast: Demand for urea had also slowed in the Southeast, with sources citing limited availability and higher prices as the cause. Sources reported a range of urea prices out of regional terminals, including $710/st FOB Norfolk, Va., and $715/st FOB Brunswick, Ga., for limited tons, and $750/st FOB Wilmington, N.C. Urea was unavailable in Savannah, Ga., in late April.
India: STC will close a tender May 4. The tender calls for an unspecified amount of non-Iranian urea. This tender is the first major one to rule out the opportunity of Iranian tons.
Some traders speculate that STC does not want to end up in the same situation following the most recent IPL tender.
Emmsons won the March IPL tender with 500,000 mt of Iranian urea. Since the time the award w
Nitrogen Solutions
U.S. Gulf: Like urea, UAN barges that were readily available were reported to be garnering a premium last week. As a result, barges were called $385-$400/st ($12.03-$12.50/unit) FOB, with unconfirmed reports as high as $410/st ($12.81/unit) FOB. The most common number heard was a firm $390/st ($12.19/unit) FOB.
Eastern Cornbelt: Sources pegged the UAN market in the Eastern Cornbelt at $13.30-$13.75/unit FOB regional terminals, with the low reported in the Ohio market on a spot basis. Sources continued to quote reference prices as high as $400.40/st for UAN-28 ($14.30/unit) and $460/st ($14.38/unit) for UAN-32.
Western Cornbelt: UAN-32 was quoted in a broad range at $430-$460/st ($13.44-$14.38/unit) FOB in the Western Cornbelt, and remained in limited supply. Missouri sources said the pace was picking up for sidedress applications on corn, with one reporting that sidedress demand will be “full bore” in his trade area by the first of May.
Southern Plains: UAN was in very tight supply in the Southern Plains, with plant problems and loading allocations limiting availability. The UAN-32 market had reportedly strengthened to $425-$440/st ($13.28-$13.75/unit) FOB terminals for very limited spot material. “Tons are available,” said one source. “It might take a few phone calls to find product, though.”
South Central: UAN-32 out of South Central terminals was quoted at $435-$460/st ($13.59-$14.38/unit) FOB, with the upper end in Arkansas and the low reported out of Memphis and Louisiana terminals. Sources reported UAN moving briskly for corn sidedressing in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky last week.
Southeast: UAN activity was in a seasonal lull in the Southeast, but sources said the solutions market was “just on the verge” of heavy sidedress movement in the region. UAN-30 was quoted at $350-$355/st ($11.67-$11.83/unit) FOB port terminals in the region, with UAN-32 pegged in the $385-$390/st ($12.03-$12.19/unit) FOB range out of Georgia terminals. Sources quoted the UAN-32 vessel market on the East Coast at $415/mt CFR for May tons and $400/mt CFR for June.
Ammonium Nitrate
U.S. Gulf: Ammonium nitrate barges that were ready to move upriver were hard to find last week, with sources saying they were $410-$420/st FOB. In the meantime, sources said barges that would load within a week or two were as low as $370-$380/st FOB.
Western Cornbelt: Ammonium nitrate remained in very tight supply, with the dealer market pegged at $460-$480/st FOB in the region, where available.
Southern Plains: Ammonium nitrate was nearly impossible to find in the Southern Plains region. The Catoosa market was sold out last week, with suppliers saying they would be firmly at the $480/st FOB level at the port if they had tons to sell.
South Central: Ammonium nitrate remained in very tight supply in the South Central region, and pricing was up considerably from last report. Sources tagged the regional market at $460-$470/st FOB for any available tons, with the low end of the range reported FOB Memphis for limited tons.
Southeast: The last pricing quote for ammonium nitrate out of the Tampa market was reported at the $450/st FOB level, up considerably from last report.