Incitec Pivot Ltd. (IPL), Southbank, Victoria, reported that its Waggaman, La., ammonia plant went down again on May 8 due to a coupling failure on the refrigeration compressor, upon which the facility was safely shut down.
The company said the Waggaman plant had restarted production in mid-April as expected and operated successfully at nameplate capacity for two weeks, when it unexpectedly tripped upon the failure of a vibration probe. But after repairs, the subsequent restart process was stopped on May 8.
Waggaman has a nameplate capacity of 800,000 mt/y. The plant went down for a major turnaround in January and has been up and down ever since. IPL said bringing the plant back to full operation is the company’s highest priority, with all appropriate internal and external resources being deployed to achieve this.
Based on current information, IPL said repairs and a restart are expected to take two to three weeks.
The company estimates the additional impact to FY2021 earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) from the initial trip to the expected restart of the plant to be between A$33 million and A$42 million (approximately US$25.7 million and US$32.6 million at current rates, or A$26m and A$33m on a net profit after tax basis).
In all other respects, IPL said its business performance remains in line with the updates provided on Feb. 15 and April 6, 2021 (GM April 9, p. 1; Feb. 19, p. 33).
The company will report its first-half FY2021 financial results on May 17.