European nitrogen fertilizer production continues to recover as natural gas prices weaken.
Dutch fertilizer giant OCI is starting up a second synthetic ammonia pipeline in the Netherlands following a production cut in August 2022 due to high natural gas prices.
Yara will restart its Sluiskil plant in the Netherlands (closed in August 2022), which has synthetic ammonia capacity of 1.9 million tons/year, urea capacity of 1.5 million tons/year, nitrate capacity of 1.8 million tons/year and liquid urea capacity of 600,000 tons/year. Yara said the synthetic ammonia plant in Italy is likely to be restarted.
Achema in Jonava, Lithuania, ceased nitrogen fertilizer production in December 2022. The plant has synthetic ammonia capacity of 1.1 million tons/year, urea capacity of 800,000 tons/year, nitrate capacity of 1.1 million tons/year and liquid urea capacity of 1.3 million tons/year. However, the company will resume synthetic ammonia production in February 2023 and the plant is still on the closure list in Lithuania, where the weather conditions are currently cold.
If Yara's synthetic ammonia line in Italy and Achema's synthetic ammonia line in Lithuania restart in February, the shutdown rate of synthetic ammonia production in Europe will drop to about 20%.
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