Urea industry has to lift op rates to meet demand

06 December 2007 12:15  [Source: ICIS news]

DELHI (ICIS news)--Delays in the implementation of several new urea fertilizer projects around the world mean that the industry will have to sustain an 88% operating rate globally for the next three years to meet demand, said the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) on Thursday.

 

Luc Maene, director general of IFA said that preliminary figures for 2007 pointed to an operating rate globally of above 90%.

 

Maene was speaking at the FAI annual conference in Delhi which runs from 5-7 December.

 

Assuming strong demand and further project delays, any surplus in the market would only emerge after 2010.

 

World urea capacity was estimated at 157.6m tonnes in 2007, reaching 189.7m tonnes by 2011.

 

Maene indicated that these figures assumed that all planned projects would be fully implemented within their respective timeframes.

 

Regionally, west and east Asia would account for two-thirds of the expansion, said Maene. New capacity would also emerge in south Asia and Africa.

 

Global demand for urea was forecast to reach 163.7m tonnes by 2011, representing a growth of 3.6%/year over 2007.

 

The use of urea for plant nutrition accounted for the bulk of this demand, reaching 144m tonnes in 2011.

 

However, use of urea for non-fertilizer sectors (which contributed 11% of demand in 2007) was projected to expand rapidly, driven by higher melamine production and new demand for treating nitrogen oxide emissions from trucks.

By: Mike Nash
+44 20 8652 3214

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