All Posts from November 19, 2013

TCP urea tender shows lower price

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.

NPN signs MOU with Chinese engineering firm for North Dakota nitrogen plant

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.