Poland's ZAP commissions new oxygen-ammonia-urea line

21 April 2011 16:38  [Source: ICIS news]

PRAGUE (ICIS)--Poland's largest fertilizer producer, Zaklady Azotowe Pulawy (ZAP), has celebrated its 50th anniversary with the commissioning of a new oxygen-ammonia-urea line as well as ammonia and urea expansions, the company said on Thursday.

The project, costing around zloty (Zl) 500m (€182.5m, $125.9m) and including a new Air Liquide air separation unit, will boost ZAP's urea capacity by 270,000 tonnes/year to 1.2m tonnes/year.

This would strengthen ZAP's position as the second biggest urea producer in the EU behind Yara, expanding its EU capacity share to 12% from 9%, ZAP said. Yara accounts for one fifth of capacity in the EU, it added.

Another expansion enabled by the project, in the Starachowice special economic zone in central Poland, is a 170,000 tonnes/year ammonia capacity increase to 1.1m tonnes/year.

Additionally, the investment had led to an increase in ZAP's AdBlue capacity from 30,000 tonnes/year to 100,000 tonnes/year. AdBlue is a diesel emissions reducer based on high-quality aqueous urea.

The initiative would mean the natural gas consumption rates of the ammonia and urea plants fall by 5.4% and 3.5% respectively, a plus for the environment, ZAP added.

“We have strengthened our urea position in Europe and the market is showing we have invested our money well,” said ZAP CEO Pawel Jarczewski.

“We can say we have concrete investments to celebrate our special anniversary,” he added.

The Polish treasury said in early April that this year could see another attempt at privatisating ZAP.

($1 = Zl 2.74, €1 = Zl 3.97)

By: Will Conroy
+44 20 8652 3214

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