Less than one month after announcing its plan to build the world’s largest clean anhydrous ammonia plant, Nutrien has followed up with another production announcement.
The company says this announcement was fueled by structural changes in global energy, agriculture and fertilizer markets and includes ramping up potash production capacity to 18 million tonnes by 2025 and ramping up nitrogen (both brownfield expansions additional growth projects under evaluation) to support sales volumes of 13.5 million tonnes by 2027.
“The challenge of feeding a growing world has never been clearer as global supply constraints have contributed to higher commodity prices and escalated concerns for global food security. There is no simple or fast solution to overcome this challenge and we see potential for multi-year strength in agriculture and crop input market fundamentals,” Ken Seitz, Nutrien’s Interim President and CEO said in the company’s announcement.
He added: “Nutrien’s integrated business is best positioned to respond to these supply challenges and help sustainably feed a growing world. We are safely bringing on additional low-cost potash and nitrogen production from our existing facilities, while delivering the products, services and solutions growers need through our leading global Retail network.”
Specific to Potash
- Citing the uncertainty of supply from eastern Europe, Nutrien is accelerating the ramp-up of its annual potash production by more than 5 million tonnes, or 40 percent, compared to production in 2020.
- And to boost potash production, the company will hire and train approximately 350 people and invest in underground mining equipment, mine development, storage and loadout capacity.
- Additionally, the company is evaluating additional low-cost brownfield expansion opportunities beyond 18 million tonnes at its Saskatchewan mines to supply longer-term market demand growth.
Regarding Nitrogen
- Previously announced brownfield expansion projects are expected to add approximately 500,000 tonnes of capacity by the end of 2025
- The company is evaluating the potential for additional low-cost brownfield expansion and emissions reduction projects to be decided and finalized over the next 12 months.
- This is in addition to the May announcement about its existing site at Geismar, Louisiana to build the world’s largest clean ammonia facility with an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of clean ammonia and capture at least 90 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
