Itafos Inc., Houston, on Oct. 20 announced its decision to restart the sulfuric acid plant at Arraias in Tocantins, Brazil. The recommissioning is expected to be completed over a four-month time frame in order to commence sulfuric acid sales during first-quarter 2022.
“There continues to be significant demand for fertilizer products globally, including sulfuric acid in our Brazilian markets,” said G. David Delaney, Itafos CEO. “Restarting our sulfuric acid plant at Arraias provides us with an opportunity to supply market demand at positive margins while we continue to evaluate strategic alternatives.”
The surge in fertilizer prices has also carried over to Brazil sulfuric acid mt CFR, which as of Oct. 15 was reported at $260-$265/mt CFR, compared to the year-ago $50-$60/mt CFR and the fairly recent low of $25-$30/mt CFR back in April 2020.
Arraias’ sulfuric acid plant has production capacity of 220,000 mt/y. The sulfuric acid plant, as well as the remainder of the infrastructure associated with Arraias’ vertically integrated phosphate fertilizer business, has been idled since fourth-quarter 2019. The remainder of Arraias’ key infrastructure – including its mine, beneficiation plant, acidulation plant, and granulation plant – is expected to remain idled following best practices.
Itafos said the restart of the sulfuric acid plant at Arraias is independent of the previously announced stage-gate restart program launched during second-quarter 2020. The next deliverable related to the stage-gate restart program remains the completion of a revised geological model and long-term mine plan of the Domingos pit, which is expected to be completed during fourth-quarter 2021.
Arraias has approximately 500,000 mt/y of single superphosphate (SSP) capacity, which can also include SSP with micronutrients (SSP+). At full SSP capacity it has approximately 40,000 mt/y of excess sulfuric acid, with gross sulfuric acid capacity of 220,000 mt/y.