All Posts from June 12, 2020

OCI NV – Management Brief

Europe, Management Briefs

OCI NV, Amsterdam, said on June 11 CEO Nassef Sawiris will assume the position of Executive Chairman of OCI’s Board of Directors, with continued responsibility for directing OCI’s strategy.

Ahmed El-Hoshy, currently COO, will succeed Sawiris as CEO.

Hassan Badrawi will oversee M&A, in addition to his current role as CFO.

The appointments are effective Aug. 1.

Michael Bennett, currently Board Chair, will assume the role of Non-Executive Co-Chairman and Senior Independent Director. Sipko Schat will assume the role of Board Vice Chairman.

In other management news, Bart Voet will join OCI in the third quarter as Vice President, Manufacturing. He has spent 27 years with Shell, most recently as Vice President, Refining & Chemicals Manufacturing for Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

K+S Aktiengesellschaft – Management Brief

Germany, Management Briefs

Andreas Kreimeyer, former member of the Board of Executive Directors and Research Executive Director of BASF Aktiengesellschaft, Ludwigshafen (now BASF SE), and Philip Freiherr von dem Bussche, former Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of KWS SAAT AG, Einbeck, were reappointed as members of the Supervisory Board of K+S Aktiengesellschaft at the company’s AGM on June 10. Subsequently, Kreimeyerwas re-elected as Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

CSX Corp. – Management Brief

Florida, Management Briefs

CSX Corp., Jacksonville, said on June 11 Ed Harris, Executive Vice President, will retire on Aug. 1, 2020. As Harris’ departure approaches, CSX’s Safety and Facilities groups, which had reported to him, will transition to Jamie Boychuk, Executive Vice President, Operations, who was appointed to succeed Harris’ leadership of the Operations function in October 2019.

Australian Potash Ltd. – Management Brief

Australia, Management Briefs, Specialty, Sulfate of Potash

Subiaco, Western Australia-based sulfate of potash (SOP) junior Australian Potash Ltd. has appointed Rhett Brans as Project Director on its Lake Wells SOP project, located approximately 500 km northeast of Kalgoorie in Western Australia’s northeastern Goldfields.

He has been a Non-Executive Director of the company since May 2017, and will work closely with continuing Project Manager Stewart McCallion. Brans’ experience includes engineering and design management, construction, and commissioning on over 40 mineral processing facilities spanning four decades.

South Africa’s Foskor says Fire at Acid Plant Won’t Impact Output or Supply

Africa, DAP/MAP, News, News Briefs, Phosphate Rock, Phosphoric Acid, Sulfuric Acid

South African phosphate producer Foskor Ltd. said on June 11 a fire at its Richards Bay phosphoric acid plant will not impact production or supply, despite damage to phosphate rock and sulfur conveyors, local media reported, citing a company statement.

The fire broke out on June 10 at the phosphate rock transfer tower, where phosphate rock and sulfur are conveyed into storage facilities. The fire was extinguished before any severe damage could occur to the conveyor, and no employees or contractors were hurt, according to reports, citing Foskor’s General Manager of Logistics, Shipping and Materials Handling, Musa Xulu.

The company expects the damaged conveyors to be operational again by the end of June.

However, according to a news report by the Zululand Observer, “a large section” of the conveyor system was “completely destroyed” before the fire was extinguished. It reported the fire will result in “millions of rands” worth of loss, damage, and repair, and that the repairs “could take months to be effected.”

The cause of the fire is still being investigated, Foskor reported. The company had not responded to Green Markets inquiries by press time.

Foskor produces sulfuric and phosphoric acid and MAP and DAP at Richards Bay. The company has production capacity for 300,000 mt/y of DAP/MAP at the site, according to Green Markets’ data.  Foskor mines and beneficiates phosphate rock at Phalaborwa in South Africa’s northern Limpopo Province, and from there it is railed to Richards Bay.

Dangote Targets First Urea in September

Africa, Ammonia, News, News Briefs, Urea

Nigeria’s Dangote Industries Ltd. said it expects urea from its new plant in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, about 50 km east of Central Lagos, to be available on the market by September, according to a report by the country’s daily newspaper The Punch, citing Dangote Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development, and Capital Projects Devakumar Edwin.

The first production units of the new ammonia-urea complex are in the commissioning phase following the completion of the test phase, according to the report. These units comprise a 2,200 mt/d ammonia unit, a 3,850 mt/d urea unit, and a 3,850 mt/d urea granulation unit, with capacity to produce some 1.5 million mt/y of granular urea once fully ramped up.

Edwin said it is hoped the power turbines could be started in the next 10 days, once steam blowing is over, and then within 90 days of power coming it, urea could be on the market.

The report cited the Dangote executive as conceding that it is “a tight schedule,” but he was confident it could be achieved. However, some market sources are circumspect, believing the company’s latest production start-up target is overly optimistic.

The project certainly has seen serial delays. Dangote originally targeted first urea production in late 2018, but those start-up plans were pushed back partly due to gas supply issues (GM Oct. 12, 2018).

Most recently, the inauguration of the plant was scheduled to take place last month. Dangote said in February several critical sections of the plant were going through various stages of pre-commissioning and test-run, and that the plant had started receiving gas supply from Chevron Nigeria Ltd. (CNL) and the Nigerian Gas Co. (GM Feb. 28, p.28).

Edwin cited the COVID-19 pandemic and “some technical challenges” as behind the delayed May inauguration of the plant, according to this week’s report. But he now does not expect the impact of these going forward to be “very significant.”

About 25 percent of the plant’s granular urea output will go to meet domestic consumption, and 75 percent of the output will be marketed for export. Initial product is expected to go to the domestic market.

The Dangote plant ultimately will have production capacity to produce some 3 million mt/y of granular urea, with three further units under development for the production of 2,200 mt/d of ammonia, 3,850 mt/d of urea, and 3,850 mt/d urea granulation capacity.

PhosAgro Targets Over 10M Mt Output, Advances Specialities, JV on Soil Labs

News, News Briefs, Russia, Specialty

PhosAgro, Moscow, expects its output of fertilizers to exceed 10 million mt this year, aimed at maintaining its export position on global markets and meeting increasing demand from the domestic market, the group’s CEO, Andrey Guryev, said in a statement this week. Guryev, who is also President of the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association (RFPA), participated in an online panel session for Russian agribusiness leaders during the country’s 2020 Synergy Executive Forum.

This output – if achieved – would represent 5 percent growth on 2019’s fertilizer output of 9.52 million mt. The group’s first-quarter 2020 fertilizer output totaled 2.55 million mt, up 8.5 percent on the year-ago 2.35 million mt (GM April 24, p. 30).

PhosAgro sold 1.5 million mt of fertilizers, including third-party produced products, to the Russian market in the first five months of this year, its CEO said.

Over the past five years, fertilizer sales by Russian producers to the country’s farmers has increased by 40 percent. The growth is a result of large-scale investments in the development of production capacities by Russian fertilizer producers, amounting to RUB800 billion (approximately $11.7 billion at current exchange rates) over the five-year period, including RUB200 billion invested by PhosAgro, said Guryev. Over the next five years, investment by the country’s fertilizer industry will exceed RUB1 trillion, he added.

PhosAgro is also working on the development of new products, including biostimulants, biobacterial additives, and deficiency correctors with Innopraktika, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and leading Russian agrarian universities.

In a separate development this week, PhosAgro participated in the launch of a regional network of soil laboratories in the Middle East and North Africa (Resolan Nena) as part of a joint venture with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Resolan Nena is part of a global network of 368 soil laboratories launched in November 2017 aimed at facilitating the exchange of experience between laboratories from around the world and implementing a program to develop soil science and provide support for farmers in sustainable agriculture.

Stamicarbon Completes Stripper for Egyptian Urea Melt Plant

Ammonia, Calcium Ammonium Nitrate, Europe, Germany, News, News Briefs, Urea

Stamicarbon, Sittard-Geleen, The Netherlands, reported the completion of the stripper for Egypt’s El Nasr Company for Intermediate Chemicals’ (NCIC) new urea melt plant, which will be part of a nitrogen fertilizer complex under development at Ain El Sokhna, around 100 km southeast of Cairo.

The stripper was completed at Schoeller-Bleckmann Nitec GmbH facility in Austria.

The urea melt plant has planned capacity of 1,050 mt/d.

Stamicarbon’s client is Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, which is the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for NCIC’s planned new ammonia, urea, and CAN facility (GM March 22, 2019). The plant will have capacity to produce 440,000 mt/y of ammonia, 380,000 mt/y of urea, and 300,000 mt/y of CAN, with start-up targeted for 2022.

Thyssenkrupp is realizing the project in a consortium with the Egyptian company Petrojet.

Lordegan Ammonia Plant On-Stream; Urea to Follow in July

Ammonia, Iran, News, News Briefs, Urea

Lordegan Urea Fertilizer Company (LUFC) in southwest Iran started production at its ammonia plant, said company Executive Director Mohsen Mahmoudi in a Trend News report, citing Shana news agency. The urea plant commission is expected between June 21-July 21, 2020.

Ammonia capacity was put at 680,000 mt, with urea at 1 million mt. Although construction for the complex began as early as 2014, recent political sanctions against the nation have contributed to delays.

Iran’s urea exports have grown by 60 percent in the past five years, to an estimated 2.5 million mt in 2019 on capacity growth, according to Alexis Maxwell, Green Markets Director of Research. Brazil is the largest buyer of Iranian urea in barter trade for food products. Iran is one of the largest buyers of Brazil’s agricultural commodities, as food is not covered by U.S. sanctions.

Trigg’s Lake Throssell SOP Project to Receive Significant Infrastructure Boost

Australia, News, News Briefs, Specialty, Sulfate of Potash

Junior sulfate of potash (SOP) explorer Trigg Mining Ltd., Subiaco, Western Australia, recently secured a significant infrastructure boost for its flagship Lake Throssell SOP project, located some 200 km east of Laverton, Western Australia (GM Dec, 20, 2019).

In late May, the Western Australian State Government and Federal Government announced the award of an A$20 million (approximately US$14 million at current exchange rates) contract to Wongutha Way Alliance, a joint venture between CareyMC Pty Ltd and Central Earthmoving Company Pty Ltd, to seal a 41 km section of the Great Central Road.

The Great Central Road is a key arterial route that runs from Leonora and Laverton, adjacent to and through the Lake Throssell tenements, and onwards through the Northern Territory to Winton in Queensland.

In addition, the Western Australian government recently announced a further phased lifting of intrastate travel restrictions related to COVID-19. This is expected to clear the way for the resumption of field activities and Trigg’s maiden exploration air-core drilling program.

Field exploration activities, including the maiden drilling program at Lake Throssell targeting a JORC resource, subject to results, could commence early in the next quarter, the company said.

The upcoming drilling program at Lake Throssell is designed to establish whether the tenor of surface mineralization, averaging 11,800mg/L SOP and up to 14,800 mg/L SOP11, can be reproduced in the sub-surface aquifer, as is the case at the company’s Lake Rason SOP Project, which has an Inferred Mineral Resource of 6 million mt of SOP, located further to the south.

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