IPL Reports Unplanned Ammonia, Phosphate Outages
Incitec Pivot Ltd. reported Jan. 28 that unplanned outages at its Louisiana and Phosphate Hill plants are expected to have a combined earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) impact of approximately A$45m for the financial year ending Sept. 30, 2019.
The Louisiana ammonia plant has been impacted by downtime caused by issues in the plant’s CO₂ removal system. Following an inspection of the equipment, repair work has commenced. IPL said the repair work is expected to fully resolve the issues. The outage is expected to result in a reduction in production for FY19 of approximately 80,000 mt. The EBIT impact of the outage (including repair costs) is estimated to be approximately A$25 million.
In addition, the Phosphate Hill facility in Australia has been affected by a leak in its phosphoric acid plant. The facility has resumed operation. The estimated impact of the outage is a reduction of approximately 50,000 mt of ammonium phosphates for the financial year ending Sept. 30, 2019 and the revised production target for FY19 is 950,000 mt. The EBIT impact is estimated to be approximately A$20 million.