Tessenderlo Kerley International (TKI) in a recent information session presented its plans for its new liquid fertilizer plant in Geleen in The Netherlands. TKI revealed its plans for the new plant at a Tessenderlo Group FY2020 earnings call in March (GM March 25, p. 33).
The company said the new plant for the production of Thio-SulR (ammonium thiosulfate) will be built on the Chemelot Industrial Estate, and construction work is planned to start in April 2022. Operations are scheduled to start from the second quarter of 2023, as earlier targeted by the company. The plant will employ 20 people.
“With the new plant in Geleen, the group’s second Thio-SulR plant in Europe, we are further expanding our local presence in the liquid fertilizer market for precision farming,” said TKI Executive Vice President Geert Gyselinck. The new facility is a response to the growing demand for liquid fertilizers in the European market, he added.
The liquid fertilizer is used for fertilizing broad-acre crops.
Raw materials – including ammonia and sulfur – are available in the vicinity, one of the reasons behind TKI’s decision to locate the new plant at the Chemelot Industrial Estate.
TKI opened its first European plant for the production of Thio-SulR in Rouen, France, in September 2017 (GM Sept. 17, 2017). Prior to the opening of its Rouen plant, for the previous few years, the company had been importing Thio-SulR from the U.S. to serve its European customers.
As previously reported, TKI is also studying a major Thio-SulR investment in the Eastern European/CIS region “to support qualitative and productivity increases of agriculture” in that region (GM March 26, p. 1; Feb. 26, p. 38; Feb. 19, p. 37).