Israel Chemicals Ltd. subsidiary Rotem Amfert has given notice to 127 workers of their impending layoffs as part of the company’s reorganization plan. The head of the Rotem Amfert union said that the dismissal notices were without prior notice and were counter to the wage agreement between management and the union. He charged management with attempts to sow an atmosphere of terror.

Earlier this month ICL reported that operating profit in its phosphate fertilizer sector was down sharply in the third quarter. ICL said that operating profit was approximately 5 percent or $22 million out of $421 million in revenues, down from 12 percent in the third quarter of 2012 or $52 million out of $436 million in revenues. The decline was due to lower demand for phosphate fertilizers in India and increased competition which led to lower prices.

Just days before the third quarter results were announced ICL said it planned to lay off 130 workers at Rotem Amfert as part of an effort to cut costs. ICL said that it hoped to propose early retirement to 100 long-time workers and reduce by another 30 the manpower levels at the company which has three plants in southern Israel which currently employ 1200 workers.

An ICL statement said that the company had swung into losses due to high production costs which are substantially higher than those in Morocco, Kazakhstan, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The statement went on to say that Rotem Amfert is facing one of the worst crises in recent years.

The Sulphur Institute (TSI) announced today that Robert W. McBride will step down as board chair and assume the position of president and CEO for the international industry organization. “Rob brings a tremendous wealth of industry knowledge and management know-how to TSI. He has already demonstrated his dedication to effectively illustrating the value proposition for TSI to its members and is now addressing it with others in the industry,” so remarked John Cavo, Trammo Inc., current TSI vice chair and search committee lead.

McBride will retire from ExxonMobil Oil Corp. after more than 30 years with the company effective Dec. 31, 2013. He has been a member of ExxonMobil’s sulfur and petroleum coke team since 2002 and been an active member in TSI since 2005. He has participated in various working groups, led the Institute’s Sulphur Advocacy program for a number of years as well as oversaw all of TSI’s programs benefitting the industry as program chair and TSI’s vice chair. In April 2013, he was elected by the board of directors as chair. McBride will assume his new role Jan. 1, 2014 with Cavo stepping into the role as TSI’s chair.

An acid tank at The Mosaic Co.’s phosphate processing plant at Riverview, Fla., exploded Saturday, Nov. 23, while routine maintenance was being performed and two workers received minor injuries. Both were taken to local hospitals for treatment, according to local news reports. A spokesman for Mosaic was not immediately available for comment, but reports said the blast lifted the roof of the tank about 100 feet into the air and a plume of smoke rose about 100 feet above the top of the facility. The tank was empty at the time. Investigators had not determined the cause of the explosion as of early Monday morning, Nov. 25. It was not clear whether the injured workers were employees of the company or contract workers.

The Mosaic Co. spokesman David Townsend said the cause of the blast of a sulfuric acid vessel on Saturday, Nov. 23, which injured two contract workers, was still unknown and under investigation.

Townsend said the explosion occurred just before 2 p.m. during a welding job on the tank. One worker was struck by flying debris on the hand and the chest, while a second who was on the ground received an injury to his hand. The worker with the chest injury, who had just stepped onto a platform near the top of the vessel from a cherry picker, was transported to a hospital, while the second worker received first aid at the scene but was taken to a hospital later as a precaution. The two were wearing protective gear at the time of blast.

Townsend said the vessel, which carries vapor, was empty because the phosphate processing plant was down for a turnaround. He said reports that the roof lifted 100 feet could not be verified. He added there were no emissions or other environmental damage from the incident.

Tampa ammonia prices for December have dropped $30/mt to $450/mt CFR from November’s $480/mt. Sources had been expecting some drop due to weaker international prices, however, $30/mt may have been a bit of a surprise to some.

Reports out of Russia today are that Belarus will allow detained Uralkali CEO Vladislav Baumgertner to be extradited back to Russia for prosecution. The news comes just days after word that Suleiman Kerimov, OAO Uralkali’s major shareholder, has agreed to sell his stake in the company to Russia’s Onexim Group.

The third TCP tender for 100,000 mt closed Nov. 18. The lowest offer came from Dreymoor at $344.42/mt CFR. The buying house disqualified two offering companies for technical reasons, leaving five companies with qualifying offers.

The winning price is about $8/mt less than the last TCP tender. Sources say the low price is largely because Dreymoor already had the tons and a vessel ready to roll. Industry watchers in Asia do not expect to see this lower price set a trend for the additional tenders.

The minimum tonnage to be offered in this tender was set at 75,000 mt, while the previous two tenders were at 100,000 mt each. Two more tenders will close Nov. 20 and Nov. 22. In the end, TCP hopes to secure 500,000 mt by the end of the year.

Northern Plains Nitrogen (NPN) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese firm Chengda Engineering Co. Ltd. for the engineering and development of NPN’s proposed $1.7 billion nitrogen plant in Grand Forks, N.D.

Officials with NPN and Chengda joined North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple on Nov. 18 at the state capitol in Bismarck for the MOU signing, which NPN officials described as a non-binding document that establishes a relationship between the two companies for the building, engineering, and funding of the facility.

“This is a win-win…for both Chinese and North Dakota companies,” said Wang Lvbei, vice president of Chengda. Headquartered in Chengdu in southwestern China, Chengda’s lengthy list of chemical projects in China includes ammonia, urea, methanol, soda ash, chlor-alkali, carbon black, polystyrene and latex production plants. Chengda has also been involved in EPC contacts for fertilizer facilities in Pakistan and power plants in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Sudan.

NPN hopes for the North Dakota nitrogen plant to begin operation in 2017. Current plans call for the facility to utilize abundant natural gas reserves from the Bakken gas fields to produce some 2,400 st/d of base ammonia, with most of that upgraded to urea and UAN. NPN CEO Don Pottinger earlier told Green Markets that the facility would have the capacity to market roughly 800,000 st/y of urea, 500,000 st/y of UAN, and 80,000 st/y of ammonia, though he said that product mix can still be altered and that those numbers may vary over time.

“It’s a facility that’s greatly needed for the farmers of not only North Dakota but the region,” said NPN President Darin Anderson at the MOU signing. “The ability to convert natural gas to fertilizer we use right here in the region is a boon for the western part of the state and the eastern part of the state.”

NPN recently confirmed that its backers will fund a $1.7 million land purchase for the site of facility (GM Oct. 28, p. 12), which is on approximately 320 acres near the Grand Forks wastewater treatment plant. NPN has also scheduled some 30-40 informational meetings to be held in the region this fall to discuss the project with potential investors.