Croatian fertilizer producer Petrokemija Plc has restarted production at Kutina after a halt of nearly a year, the company reported in a March 3 media release.
Petrokemija said following several days of preparations, it has restarted the energy plants, the nitric acid plant 1, and the NPK plant, with plans to produce 4,000 mt of nitric acid by March 9 and 14,000 mt of NPK 15-15-15 fertilizer by March 23.
“Further production, as well as a restart of the ammonia plant, are continuously re-examined and a decision will be made based on market conditions,” the company said.
Currently, Petrokemija is able to meet the demand on the domestic fertilizer market with its own output, as well as with imported products, it added.
The company’s new controlling shareholder, Turkey’s Yildirim Holding AS, late last year said it was targeting Petrokemija’s restart of production in the first quarter of 2023, and “would step up its efforts to achieve this once it had completed the acquisition of the Croatian company” (GM Dec. 9, 2022).
Petrokemija is Croatia’s sole fertilizer producer. Its nameplate production capacity for nitrogen fertilizers includes 0.45 million mt/y of ammonia, 0.31 million mt/y of ammonium nitrate, 0.5 million mt/y of urea, and 0.2 million mt/y of UAN, according to Green Markets database.