The rise of the Russian fertilizer industry

Russia is the leading fertilizer producer in the world and one of the top five suppliers in the international market. In the next eight years, with the expansion of production capacity exceeding the growth rate of domestic consumption, fertilizer exports will continue to accelerate.

The main export products will be urea, potassium chloride and sulfur-containing ternary fertilizers. The upgrading and expansion of the equipment will increase the ability to supply the international market, and Russian producers have sufficient phosphate resources, and they have the ability to take advantage of the growing The global compound fertilizer market.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of the Russian Federation, the compound fertilizer growth rate of Russian fertilizer production in 2010-2017 was 3.35%. In 2017, the chemical fertilizer production reached 22.5 million tons of nutrients, most of which have already been exported.

The fertilizer industry development plan adopted by the Russian government at the end of March requires that by 2025, fertilizer production will increase by 5.5 million tons (compared with an average annual growth rate of 2.76%), which means that exports will further increase.

Nitrogen production is expected to increase from 10 million tons last year to 12.3 million tons by 2025; production of phosphate (P2O5) and potash (K2O) is expected to increase from 3.9 million tons and 8.6 million tons in 2017 to 4 million, respectively. Tons and 11.7 million tons.

The continuous increase in production over the past seven years has led to an increase in exports. In 2010-2017, the compound annual growth rate of chemical fertilizer exports was 3.02%, reaching 34.3 million tons. In 2017, exports of potassium chloride accounted for 32% of total exports, and exports of urea and ammonium nitrate accounted for 19% and 10% of total exports. Compound fertilizers and ammonium phosphate exports accounted for 17% and 10% of total exports.

Bacillus thuringiensis

Russia’s urea production has grown steadily over the past seven years due to upgrades to existing facilities and the commissioning of new installations. From 2010 to 2017, Russia built two urea plants and three large-particle urea plants. Eurochem’s second large-grain urea production line in Novomoskovsk was commissioned in 2010. Phosagro commissioned a 495,000 tonne/year pellet urea plant and a 500,000 tonne/year large particle urea plant in Cherepovets in 2012 and 2017 respectively. In 2012, Acron built a 335,000 tonne/year urea plant in its Veliky Novgorod. In 2015, Acron built a 717,000 tonne/year large particle urea plant near the original ammonium nitrate plant.

In the past seven years, most of the urea plants in Russia have been operating close to capacity or slightly above capacity. However, by 2017, Togliattiazot used only one of its two sets of 480,000 tonne/year urea plants. The company resumed production of a second production line last year. As a result, production increased from 552,200 tons in 2016 to a maximum of 720,200 tons in the past six years.

Russian companies plan to significantly expand urea capacity in the next few years. Acron expects to build a 600 ton/day urea plant in Veliky Novgorod in the summer of 2018, the company’s sixth urea plant, and is upgrading its existing production line. After the project was put into operation, the plant has a total capacity of 3,650 tons/day. Methanol producer Metafrax plans to start construction of a synthetic ammonia-urea-melamine co-production unit in Perm Krai this year, with a urea capacity of 56.2 tons/day. Togliattiazot has secured a loan this year for the construction of a third urea plant with a capacity of 2,200 tons per day; the plant is scheduled to go into production in 2020. Uralchem ​​plans to complete the technical transformation of the Perm plant in 2019, increasing its capacity by 254,000 tons per year. Eurochem also expands urea production at its Nevinnomyssk plant. By 2025, Russia’s urea capacity is expected to increase by more than 1.8 million tons / year.

In recent years, Russia has also proposed some urea projects, but the financing has not yet been completed. For example, Kuibyshevazot announced in July 2017 that it has formed a joint venture with MaireTecnimont to develop a new 1500 tonne/day urea project in Togliatti. Ammoni is also considering the second phase of the project “Ammoni -2″, which signed a preliminary agreement with the parties including Russian oil company Tatneft in February 2016.

The increase in production will boost Russian urea exports. Russian farmers’ demand for urea is growing, but it is still low compared to ammonium nitrate; according to the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association (RAPU), urea consumed to local farmers last year was 293,500 tons, compared to 22.37 tons in 2016. . Delivery to industrial buyers also showed slow growth; shipments in 2017 increased from 887,300 tons in 2016 to 889,500 tons.

Benzalkonium chloride