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Azomure resumes production at 50% of capacity
Azomures, the biggest producer of fertilzer and industrial consumer of natural gas in Romania, controlled by the group Ameropa resumes their production at 50% of the capacity, after it had been suspended for a long time due to historic growths of the price for natural gas, the main raw material in the industry. The company announced that they signed natural gas procurement contracts, which allow the resumption of fertilisers production at 50% of the total capacity of the plant, starting with October 2023. In May, the activity resumed at only 10% of the capacity.
According to the quoted source, the procurement of natural gas was made against ‘continuous challenges’ in the structure of local markets of energy, such as ‘supplementary taxes which have just been announced’ which ‘surely’ will increase the costs of Azomures. ‘ On the other hand, we consider that ensuring fertilisers for the next agricultural season ( 2023 – 2024) it is too important to be ignored for the Romanian agricultural sector, so it was the right time to act. Our intention is to keep ammonia production (gas being the feedstock here) as well as NPK, ammonium nitrate and nitrocalcare finished product facilities running as long as conditions allow, with the caveat that volatility in the gas and fertilizer markets is still at historic highs, so the future is still uncertain’ said Josh Zacharias, CEO of Azomures.
The Azomures platform produces ammonia (an intermediate product for fertiliser manufacture) in two similar plants, coded III and IV. The restarting of Ammonia III and related plants will allow the manufacture of a significant quantity of fertiliser for Romanian farmers preparing crops for the new agricultural season. The total production capacity of the platform is 1.6 million tonnes, of which 80-85% is destined for the Romanian agricultural market. ″Azomures and fertilizers play a vital role in the Romanian economy, connecting the two major sectors of energy and agriculture. We have had a continuous dialogue with the Romanian Government and in particular with the Ministries of Economy, Energy and Agriculture to identify the best solutions that will allow us to fully resume our activity in a sustainable way. We have not reached where we set out to, but this is an important step forward and we believe that by continuing the dialogue we will ensure that Azomures reaches 100% capacity and contributes to the Government's ambition to increase the volume of goods produced in Romania, to provide jobs for Romanians, to improve the trade balance and ultimately to see our contribution to the state budget in a productive way," Zacharias added.
In the autumn of last year, the former CEO of the Mures plant, Harri Kiiski, stated that Profit Energy forum that Azomures which had its activity stopped due to the growth of the prices for gas, the main raw material for the sector, would need a price of less half of the then European reference price to restart fertilizer production, i.e. a price of less than euro 90/MWh. Today, reference quotations on the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) hub have fallen below euro 40/MWh.