Ameropa AG

Ameropa AG, Binningen, Switzerland, on Nov. 18 named Bunge Ltd.’s William Dujardin as its new Group CEO, effective Jan. 8. He had been with Bunge since 2005, most recently serving as Vice President for North and Central Europe, and also worked for seven years at Louis Dreyfus Co.

The move means that Andreas Zivy will return to his position as Chairman of the company. Zivy, a third-generation member of the firm’s founding family, has led the company since the departure of Jan Kadanik earlier this year. Dujardin’s appointment marks the second time a non-founding family member will lead the privately-held company.

Dujardin, 45, a French national, holds a master’s degree (DESS) in International Business from Université Paris-Dauphine and an MBA from INSEAD.

“The Board and shareholders are delighted to welcome Mr. Dujardin to Ameropa, thereby handing the reins to a younger generation that will continue to develop our Group towards innovation, digitization, and sustainability,” said Zivy.

Wilbur-Ellis Acquires Nachurs Alpine Solutions

Wilbur-Ellis, San Francisco, on Nov. 20 announced the acquisition of Nachurs Alpine Solutions® (NAS), Marion, Ohio, a specialty liquid chemical manufacturer serving the precision agriculture, transportation, energy, and diversified industrial sectors in North America.

NAS, founded in 1946 and a pioneer in low-salt, liquid starter fertilizer, will be led by its current President and CEO Jeff Barnes, who will report to Wilbur-Ellis President and CEO John Buckley. NAS will operate as a new business division of Wilbur-Ellis, alongside the company’s other core businesses – Agribusiness, Nutrition, and Connell. NAS’s products will continue to be sold under its signature brands, including Nachurs® and Alpine® liquid fertilizers in the U.S. and Canada, and Nachurs Alpine Solutions Industrial (NASi®) products in the transportation, mining, energy, and industrial chemicals markets.

NAS’ brands are supported by more than 200 employees, seven manufacturing plants, and 85-plus distribution terminals in the U.S. and Canada. The seven NAS plants are located in Garretson, S.D., Marion, Ohio, Corydon, Ind., Red Oak, Iowa, St. Gabriel, La., New Hamburg, Ont., and Belle Plaine, Sask. NAS bought the Garretson plant from Koch Fertilizer LLC, Wichita, late last year (GM Nov. 30, 2018).

“NAS is a great strategic fit for Wilbur-Ellis,” said Wilbur-Ellis’s Buckley. “It supports our One Wilbur-Ellis strategy, which promotes collaboration and leveraging our resources, experiences, and knowledge across our businesses to add value and better serve customers.”

He said NAS is an industry leader in precision agriculture and has built strong brands and long-term relationships with customers and suppliers, which creates value and supports Wilbur-Ellis’ Agribusiness division, also a leader in precision agriculture technology and the distribution and marketing of crop protection, seed, and nutritional products.

The acquisition also allows Wilbur-Ellis to enter new markets and expand its specialty chemicals presence in North America. NAS’s de-icing and freeze prevention products are new for Wilbur-Ellis, while NAS’s involvement in the energy industry fits with Wilbur-Ellis’s role as a provider of specialty materials for oil and natural gas applications.

These products are sold through Wilbur-Ellis’s Connell business, which is best known as a marketer and distributor of specialty chemicals and ingredients in Asia-Pacific, where it has operated for over 120 years. Wilbur-Ellis also sees collaboration opportunities for NAS and its Nutrition division, a leader in the international marketing and distribution of nutrients for the livestock, pet food, and aquaculture industries.

“NAS has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to innovate,” added Buckley. “Over the past five years, the company has launched over 50 new products, which has provided greater stability in changing markets and contributed significantly to their product portfolio.” He added that the NAS liquid fertilizer business was one of the first companies to adopt the 4R Nutrient Stewardship philosophy.

NAS is the largest acquisition for Wilbur-Ellis, which was founded in 1921. It comes just two weeks after Wilbur-Ellis acquired Rangen Inc., Buhl, Idaho, a privately-held, 90-plus year-old aquaculture and general feed production company with production facilities in Buhl, Idaho, and Angleton, Texas. Rangen employs approximately 80 full-time employees at its headquarters and plant operations.

Zuari Inks MOU with OCP

India’s Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd. has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Morocco’s OCP SA in which OCP will make a strategic investment in Zuari’s wholly-owned Zuari FarmHub Ltd. (ZFHL). The terms and conditions of the proposed strategic investment, whether primary and/or secondary, will be discussed and finalized over the next few months.

ZFHL will be taking over Zuari’s existing Retail, Specialty Nutrients, Crop Care, and Seeds activities, as well as the manufacturing operations of Baramati Specialty Nutrients plant, and will also be spearheading the company’s plans to set up Hubs across the country.

Zuari and OCP have had a long partnership of over 17 years through their joint holding in Indian-based producer Paradeep Phosphates Ltd. (GM Dec. 8, 2017).

Florikan ESA – Management Brief

Florikan ESA, Sarasota, Fla., said on Nov. 18 that in order to meet increased customer demand in the Southeast, it has hired Kevin Branch as Senior Account Manager. The company said he has 20 years of sales leadership in the professional horticulture business sector.

Branch will work with the ornamental sales team to help bring FlorikanCRF® with Nutricote®, GalXe-ONE®, and YLD™ through Florikan’s distribution channel to existing and new customers in the Southeast, as well as key accounts in other Florikan markets. Further assisting in this effort is the opening of the dedicated Florikan Distribution Center, a 35,000 square foot expansion in Bowling Green, Fla.

Appeals Court Rules in Phosphate Waste Case

Upholding previous rulings by Tribal and U.S. District Courts, the three-judge 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled unanimously that the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes can impose $1.5 million in annual fees against FMC Corp. for storing 22 million tons of hazardous waste on the Fort Hall Reservation in eastern Idaho.

FMC operated the world’s largest elemental phosphorus plant near Pocatello on reservation land from 1949 through 2001, when it shut down the four-furnace complex. In 1990, the U.S. EPA declared FMC’s plant and storage area and the adjacent off-reservation J.R. Simplot Co. phosphate fertilizer plant a Superfund Site under CERCLA (the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act). In 1997, EPA further charged FMC with violating RCRA, (the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act).

A consent decree settling the RCRA suit required FMC to obtain permits from the Shoshone-Bannocks. FMC paid the $1.5 million negotiated annual hazardous waste use permit fee from 1998-2001, but refused to pay it in 2002 after ceasing active plant operations. The tribes then filed suit to collect the fee.

A Tribal Appeals Court said tanker railcars buried at the site contained from 200-2,000 tons of elemental phosphorus sludge or slag, up to 25 percent that remained in each of the tankers at the time they were buried because FMC concluded that cleaning them would be dangerous to employees.

The FMC site on 1,450 acres is near the Portneuf River and Fort Hall Bottoms, where groundwater contamination threatens the “gathering and subsistence fishing, hunting, and gathering by tribal members at the river, as well as the tribes’ ability to use this important resource as it has been historically used for cultural activities,” the Tribal Court said.

The 9th Circuit Court ruled that FMC’s waste “threatens or has some direct effect on the political integrity, the economic security, or the health or welfare” of the tribes to the extent that it “imperil[s] the subsistence or welfare” of the tribes.

Annual waste storage fees not collected since 2002 would total about $27 million.

“We can now work to fully implement our hazardous waste main act regulations and develop safety monitoring and notification networks,” said Tribal Environmental Waste Manager Kelly Wright, who added that the storage fees also would be used for compliance and cleanup.

FMC spokesman Paul Yochum told Green Markets that FMC is disappointed in the ruling and is reviewing both the decision and the company’s options. “FMC has made substantial progress working with the U.S. EPA, the tribes, and the state of Idaho to remediate the Pocatello plant site,” he said. In the meantime, Yochum said “FMC will continue to meet its environmental obligations at the site and redevelop the property for the benefit of all Southeast Idaho residents.”

Tessenderlo Boosts 2019 Outlook; Improved U.S. Ag Season a Factor

Tessenderlo Group, Brussels, on Nov. 21 said it now anticipates a 2019 adjusted EBITDA of approximately €270 million, significantly higher than 2018’s adjusted EBITDA of €177.8 million. Much of the increase is due to the full-year contribution of T-Power nv, a gas-fired power plant in Belgium (€50 million) (GM Oct. 19, 2018), as well as the impact of IFRS 16 Leases for approximately €25 million. In 2018, T-Power was only included for the fourth quarter for €13.5 million, and IFRS 16 Leases were not yet applicable.

Tessenderlo also said the revised outlook reflects the extension of the agriculture season in the U.S., which has resulted in increased volumes within the Crop Vitality segment, and a volume increase and improved mix within Bio-valorization.

More EuroChem VolgaKaliy Delays Reported

EuroChem Group AG is not going to be able to start commercial potash production next year at its VolgaKaliy operation in Russia’s southern Volgograd region, according to an Interfax report this week, citing Igor Nechaev, Head of the group’s Russian subsidiary JSC MCC EuroChem. He was speaking on the sidelines of the Russia Calling! investment forum held on Nov. 20-22 and organized by VTB Capital.

The fertilizer group first confirmed in June that it was delaying commercial production at VolgaKaliy because it had come across “geological problems” (GM June 14, p. 1). Reporting its first-half 2019 financial results in early August, it elaborated further on the slower-than-planned underground development due to the difficulties with geology, reporting that water inflow into the cage shaft was continuing (GM Aug. 9, p. 29). At that time, the group said it was trying to eliminate the water inflow and planned to drill additional freezing holes.

However, EuroChem had emphasized that the two existing shafts and processing plant design capacities remained unchanged from the previously reported approximately 10-12 million mt/y of ore, to make a total of 2.3 million mt/y of finished product, respectively.

VolgaKaliy produced just 35,000 mt of ore in the first six months of this year, equating to some 12,000 mt of finished product. The first test concentrate was produced at the site in July 2018, and as late as 12 months ago, EuroChem had been targeting first commercial production during the first half of 2019 (GM Nov. 30, 2018).

But operations are going well at the group’s Usolskiy potash operation south of Berezniki. Nechaev confirmed that production at Usolskiy was on target to reach 1 million mt this year, and that the site’s initially-envisioned design capacity of 2.3 million mt/y for phase 1 of the project would be reached by 2021.

EuroChem revealed in early August that it expected to achieve 2.9 million mt/y of potassium chloride production at Usolskiy in the next two years through some minor equipment upgrades.

Usolskiy produced 467,000 mt of potassium chloride in the first half of this year. External sales of potash amounted to 389,000 mt, compared to 136,000 mt sold in the same prior-year period.

OCP Eyes Late-2023 Start-Up for Nigeria NH3 Plant, Plans Expansion in Brazil

OCP SA, Casablanca, expects its planned ammonia plant in Nigeria to be operational by late 2023, according to a Reuters report, citing OCP Africa Fertilisers Nigeria’s Managing Director Mohamed Hettiti.

The plant will have capacity for 750,000 mt/y of ammonia and is being built at a reported cost of $1.3 billion in southeast Nigeria, where the Moroccan group already has identified gas suppliers, according to the report. Earlier reports suggested that OCP was considering a capacity of around 1 million mt/y (GM March 8, p. 1).

OCP and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in June 2018 to develop an industrial platform in Nigeria for the production of ammonia and related products (GM June 15, 2018).

Commenting on the plans this past January, Hettiti said some of the ammonia output would be exported to Morocco for OCP’s own use (GM Jan 18, p. 1). The Moroccan group currently imports all its ammonia requirements.

Some of the ammonia output from the new Nigeria plant also will be used to produce DAP at a new plant that OCP plans to build in the West African country. OCP would supply the phosphoric acid requirements from its Moroccan production facilities. The current status of this project is unclear.

Since establishing wholly-owned subsidiary OCP Africa SA with the aim of helping to meet the challenge of creating structured, efficient, and sustainable agriculture in Africa, OCP SA has since established at least 12 subsidiaries on the continent. Many of them are as joint ventures with local governments, including in Ethiopia, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Rwanda, and Tanzania, among other countries. Several of the jv’s include plans for the development of local production units.

In a separate development, the Moroccan group is reported to be planning to add four new fertilizer storage units in Brazil next year. The new warehouses will open in the states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, Pará, and Santa Catarina in 2020, according to a report by the Brazil-Arab news agency Agência de Notícias Brasil-Árabe (Anba), citing OCP’s CEO for Brazil Olavio Takenaka.

The group also has plans for further storage units in 2021, according to Takenaka.

It is understood that all of the phosphate sold by OCP in Brazil is imported from Morocco.

OCP has been active in Brazil since 2010, with operations in Paranaguá, Paraná state; Rio Grande and Itaqui in Rio Grande do Sul state; Rondonópolis in Mato Grosso state; and Aratu in Bahia state. It also has two offices in São Paulo.

The Moroccan group also holds a 10 percent stake in Viana, Espírito Santo state-based Fertilizantes Heringer SA, which filed for judicial reorganization in February (GM Feb. 8, p. 1). Russia’s Uralkali and Uralchem in September signed a binding letter of intent with Heringer’s controlling shareholder, which could ultimately give the two Russian companies control of Heringer (GM Sept. 27, p. 1).

India’s Rajasthan to Open Up Potash Deposits to Private Sector

India’s Rajasthan state government has decided to open up its huge potash reserves to the private sector through auctions, following years of attempts to exploit the deposits commercially being stymied by bureaucratic red tape.

Rajasthan sits on some 20,419 million mt of total potash resources, according to the 2018 edition of the Indian Minerals Yearbook, published by the Indian Bureau of Mines. The deposits are mostly concentrated in the Nagaur-Ganganagar Basin of northwest Rajasthan. Known potash deposits are minimal elsewhere in India, but the country currently meets almost all of its domestic consumption of the nutrient through imports. Potassium chloride imports totaled around 4.5 million mt in calendar 2018.

Rajasthan’s state government has now set up a state-level empowered committee for harnessing potash deposits in the state, according to a report last week by India’s Hindustan Times and others, citing state Chief Secretary D.B. Gupta.

According to the Chief Secretary, the first task will be for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be inked between Rajasthan State Mines & Minerals Ltd. (RSMML), India’s Ministry of Mines-run Mineral Exploration Corp. Ltd. (MECL), and the Department of Mining and Geology to undertake feasibility and pilot plant studies.

The MOU is expected to be signed in “a few months’ time,” but the studies will be completed in six months, paving the way for auctions, according to the report, citing Gupta. Development and exploitation of the potash deposits have the potential to reverse the scenario from India being an importer of potash to an exporter of the commodity, he said.

The state government will need to undertake financial and economic studies before the auctions start, according to the report, citing Rajasthan’s Mines and Geology Director Gaurav Goyal.

Sasol, Enaex Conclude Negotiations for Enaex-Controlled Explosives JV

Johannesburg-based Sasol Ltd. and Chile’s Enaex SA separately announced that they have successfully completed negotiations to form a new joint venture company into which Sasol will transfer its explosives’ and rock fragmentation business as a going concern. An application will now be submitted to South Africa’s Competition Commission for approval of the proposed jv.

Once Competition Commission approval is received, Sasol and Enaex will form the new jv, said Sasol. The Santiago-headquartered Enaex, as the majority shareholder in the new company, will take over management and operational control of the new entity.

Sasol announced in July that it had selected the Santiago-based Enaex, which is Latin America’s largest producer of explosives-grade ammonium nitrate, as its preferred partner (GM July 26, p. 25). The South African company at the time said Sasol South Africa Ltd. would be the participating entity in the proposed jv, should it be formed.

The new company will include certain assets and associated activities within the current explosives value chain of Sasol South Africa’s Base Chemicals business, and will include associated business activities in both South Africa and the rest of the countries in Southern Africa. The Sasol Explosives division produces over 350,000 mt/y of explosives and has over 1,000 employees. It makes approximately US$250 million in annual revenue.

Sasol said in July the potential partner would be required to continue to ensure “reliable and sustainable” ammonia offtake for Sasol South Africa.

“Enaex brings almost a century’s experience to the global explosives market, with its core business being ammonium nitrate production, explosives production, and blasting services, making the company one of the few in the world that can produce and offer the entire spectrum of products and solutions to execute the blasting process,” said Sasol.

The South African company began a detailed asset review in 2017 to ensure that all assets in its global portfolio deliver against “stringent” financial metrics and are aligned with the company’s growth strategy.

In line with this review, Sasol’s explosives business was identified as having “substantial growth potential that could be unlocked through collaboration opportunities, including the possibility of partnering with a world-class brand,” Sasol said.

For Enaex, the tie-up with Sasol is seen as part of the Chilean company’s strategic plan to continue strengthening its international presence in the most important mining regions of the world.

Enaex CEO Juan Andrés Errázuriz also highlighted the significance of the African market for the Chilean company. “Because of its size, Africa is currently the third-largest explosives market in the world and has significant growth potential,” said Errázuriz.

Enaex SA, a subsidiary of the Sigdo Koppers Group, Santiago, owns three plants for the production capacity of ammonium nitrate, with a combined total capacity of 850,000 mt/y, according to its website.

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