Nitrogen & Methanol articles from July 2000

Nitrogen & Methanol archives from July 2000

Gas attack.(natural gas prices and nitrogen market)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... The North American nitrogen industry could be forgiven for thinking that the cards are stacked against them. No sooner has the ink dried on a deal which will see China enter the World Trade Organisation and allow imports of DAP and urea from...

Prices peak as plants restart.(ammonia)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Ammonia prices peaked in May at the mid-$150s/t f.o.b. Yuzhnyy as more supply became available in the Black Sea region. Production problems at Russian and Ukrainian producers seemed to be mostly conquered, and FSU traders were also finding it...

Latin American demand keeps prices moving upward.(Black Sea urea)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Black Sea urea prices surged during May, moving from $83/t f.o.b. to $105/t at Yuzhnyy. Continuing demand in Mexico due to the shutdown of the country's ammonia plants was augmented by other Latin American enquiries from Chile, Brazil and...

Prices soar on high gas costs and more outages.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Stalwart cash prices for natural gas and a surge in crude oil prices helped support strong gas futures activity in the US. For June, contract pricing for the US Gulf Coast settled at $4.48/mmBtu. This represents an increase of $1.30 over the...

WTO deal is welcome relief for producers.(China entry terms)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... News that China has reached agreement with the US over the conditions under which it will join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has come as welcome relief to international urea and DAP producers. Fertilizers and agriculture had become one of...

Kemira to close Rozenburg plant.(Kemira Agro's nitrogen production plant in Netherlands)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Kemira Agro has announced the closure of its nitrogen production facility at Rozenburg, the Netherlands. The company says that the plant will be closed before the end of the year, with the loss of 220 jobs. The cost of closure is put at...

Government moves on fertilizer subsidies.(India)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... India's BJP-led government is continuing to press ahead with its programme of cutting fertilizer subsidies as part of India's bid to join the WTO. Subsidies on imported diammonium phosphate (DAP) are to be set at Rs 950/t ($21.25/t) for the...

Government tries to push overseas plants.(India's urea production)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... The Indian government has said that it will put greater emphasis on developing urea production overseas where gas is cheaper, rather than within India itself. This philosophy has been behind the government's decision to support the Oman-India...

New nitrogen complex for Queensland.(Queensland Fertilizer Assets Ltd.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Queensland Fertilizer Assets Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding with Krupp Uhde and US-based Devco International to build a new nitrogen complex at Pickanjinnie in Queensland. The site will include a 330,000 t/a ammonia plant, a...

More Hydro plant closures.(Hydro Agri Europe S.A.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Hydra Agri has added to its list of European plant closures with notice that it intends to shut three NPK blending plants in France. The plants, at Aunay, La Pallice and Tarnos, have a total of about 500,000 t/a of NPK capacity, and employ 170...

Agromex sues government over dumping investigation.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Mexico's urea producer Agromex is suing the Mexican government for failing to deal with allegations of dumping of US and Russian urea. A government investigation ended in April with no duties being imposed. Instead the government ruled that...

Duty imposed on Russian AN.(Poland, ammonium nitrate)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Poland has joined the lengthening list of countries that have imposed duty on imports of ammonium nitrate from Russia. The blame has been placed on differentials in natural gas prices charged to consumers in Russia and Poland. Polish fertilizer...

PCS reaches gas deal - plants restart.(PCS Nitrogen's contract with National Gas Company of Trinidad)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... PCS Nitrogen has finally reached a new long-term gas supply arrangement with the National Gas Company of Trinidad (NGC), allowing it to restart two ammonia plants that had been closed pending a deal. PCS's two older ammonia units, with a...

KBR confirms CNC contract.(Kellogg Brown & Root, Caribbean Nitrogen Co.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) has confirmed that it has been awarded contracts from Ferrostaal and the Caribbean Nitrogen Company (CNC) to build a 620,000 t/a ammonia plant at Point Lisas, Trinidad. The plant, which will use KBR's Kellogg Advanced...

Qafco IV is go.(ammonia-urea plant)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Qafco has decided to proceed with its proposed fourth ammonia-urea plant. Work on preparing the site will begin by November this year. The projected plant will have 660,000 t/a of ammonia and 1.05m t/a of granular urea capacity. Tendering for a...

Gas prices bring sweeping shutdowns.(nitrogen plant shutdowns)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... High prices for natural gas in the US have caused a series of US nitrogen producers to announce plant shutdowns and closures. Mississippi Chemicals is the most recent casualty, with 250,000 st/a of urea production at Faustina, Louisiana and...

Explosion kills one at CF Industries.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... On May 24th, an explosion and fire rocked CF Industries' number 3 ammonia plant at Donaldsonville, Louisiana. One worker was killed and ten others were taken to Baton Rouge General Hospital, suffering from burns. The cause of the accident is...

Bontang plant starts up.(Kaltim Pasifik Ammoniak's ammonia plant)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Kaltim Pasifik Ammoniak's new 660,000 t/a ammonia plant has started up at Bontang, east Kalimantan. The plant is a joint venture between Japanese traders Mitsui and Tomen and local Indonesian firms, and will be oriented towards export sales.

Vietnamese surcharge on urea ends.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The Vietnamese State Pricing Committee has lifted the 3% surcharge on imported urea, which had been in place for two years. Its withdrawal was primarily due to the current weakness in domestic prices for agricultural products, especially rice...

Aid shipments to North Korea begin.(NPK fertilizers shipped to North Korea)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... As a further sign of the gradually warming relations between the two countries, South Korea has begun the shipping of 200,000 tonnes of NPK fertilizers to North Korea "with no strings attached". The shipping is due to be complete by July.

WMC closes DAP plant early.(Western Mining Corporation )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Australia's Western Mining Corporation (WMC) has made an earlier than scheduled shutdown of its DAP complex at Phosphate Hill, Queensland to allow Linde to make modifications to the ammonia plant, which had been suffering start-up problems.

Brazilian AN plant start-up.(ammonium nitrate)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... Kaltenbach-Thuring has completed work on an 80,000 t/a ammonium nitrate plant at Cubatao in Brazil for Ultrafertil. Detailed engineering work was conducted by local engineering firm Jaakko Poyry Enghenharia.

Chile -- Nitrate plant starts up.(Sociedad Quimica y Mineria de Chile plant)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... A new potassium nitrate plant is due to start production at the end of August, according to owner Socieded Quimica y Mineria de Chile (SQM). Capacity is around 200,000 t/a of [KNO.sub.3], produced as prills using technology provided by Swiss...

Industry shakeout will continue, says Methanex.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... In his speech at the company's AGM in May, Methanex president and CEO Pierre Choquette said that he expected the rationalisation of capacity in the methanol industry to continue. Since 1997, over 2m t/a of methanol capacity has been idled in...

New route for India pipeline under consideration.(Gas Authority of India Ltd )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Plans for a shallow water pipeline to export gas to India are back on the agenda after Pakistan seemingly dropped previous objections to allowing the pipeline to cross its territorial waters in return for transit fees. Russia's Gazprom has been...

Natural gas prices force plant shutdowns.(shutdowns in ammonia and methanol industries)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... US natural gas prices have risen above $4.00/mmBtu, causing a wave of shutdowns in the ammonia and methanol industries. Part of the reason has been increased demand for gas from electricity generators, which has risen by an average of 3% year...

Acetic acid startups scheduled for July.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Two major acetic acid plants are due to start up this month with a combined capacity of 900,000 t/a. The first was to have been the 400,000 t/a BP Amoco - Petronas joint venture at Kerteh, which was originally projected to be onstream by the...

Gazprom reports jump in profits.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Russian state gas company Gazprom reported an operating profit of 89bn roubles ($3.27bn), nearly three times last year's figure of 34bn roubles. A large part of the profit will be used to offset debts incurred by 1998's major losses. Gazprom...

Detailed bids invited for gas projects.(Saudi Arabia)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The opening up of Saudi Arabia's oil and gas sector is slowly continuing. As Saudi Arabia makes its application to join the World Trade Organisation, it has passed a law which sharply reduces the punitive taxes on profits charged to foreign...

Methanex exits Sweetwater deal.(Sweetwater gas to liquids project)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Methanex has backed out of plans to build a US$400m, 10,000 barrels/day (410,000 t/a) gas to liquids (GTL) plant on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia. The Sweetwater GTL project is being developed by Syntroleum, whose proprietary...

Blue Stream forging ahead.(gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2000... The Blue Stream gas pipeline that is being constructed by Gazprom and partner Eni across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey is continuing to make progress. Construction officially began in February, and in March the Italian export credit...

Major gas expansion planned.(China)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... As part of ongoing attempts to provide for the country's future energy needs, China has set itself the ambitious target of quadrupling domestic gas consumption by 2010. China has large reserves of natural gas -- around 60 tcm, mostly in Sichuan...

People.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Jean--Pierre Tirouflet, chairman and CEO of Rhodia, has been elected president of the European Chemical Infustry Council (CEFIC) at the organisation's annual general assembly. The post is held for a two-year term. Kellogg Brown & Root has...

Urea technology symposium.
July 1, 2000... Stamicarbon's 9th urea symposium was held in Amsterdam in the Netherlands from 8th -- 11th May. Dutch urea technology supplier Stamicarbon have been running an annual urea technology symposium for nine years now. The conference aims to...

MTO -- has its time come?(Industry Overview)
July 1, 2000... With methanol facing some years of overcapacity and gas producers increasingly using the compound as a way of bringing stranded gas to market, methanol producers have been looking for alternative uses for their products in recent months. One of...

SC's SCs.(Sud-Chemie's Syngas Catalysts Millennium Seminar )(Company Profile)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Around 80 guests attended Sud-Chemie's Syngas Catalysts Millennium Seminar in Lisbon in May. Nitrogen & Methanol was invited to eavesdrop on the proceedings. Sud-Chemie was founded in 1857 as a fertilizer manufacturer in Upper Bavaria,...

Driving nitrogen processes.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The machinery that drives the reactants through ammonia, nitric acid and urea plants is very expensive and very important. We take a look at some of the developments. The processes used to manufacture ammonia and the immediate derivatives...

Nitric Acid Producers' Meeting report.(June l2th--l4th 2000)
July 1, 2000... The Nitric Acid Producers Meeting was held at the Riverfront Marriott Hotel in Savannah, Georgia, USA, from June l2th--l4th 2000. This year's meeting of the Nitric Acid Producers reflected the harsh reality of today's nitrogen market. This...

Under pressure: documentation of ammonia relief valves.
July 1, 2000... Steve Kent of Mustang Tampa Inc describes the steps necessary for proper documentation of relief valves for ammonia handling facilities under OSHA regulations. In May 1992, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)...