OCI Nitrogen’s CAN plant will not restart this month after blaze

LONDON (ICIS)–Dutch fertilizers and chemicals group OCI N.V. on Thursday confirmed the restart of both ammonia plants at Geleen following a fire, but revealed the calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) facility will be offline until at least November.

The blaze in a basement of a fertilizer plant at OCI Nitrogen’s Chemelot site on 30 September triggered the immediate shutdown of the group’s various fertilizer operations and melamine plants.

While both ammonia plants have restarted, other units have yet to come back online after the fire in which no-one was hurt.

“The urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) and one of the melamine plants are expected to restart production later this week,” the parent group confirmed in a short statement.

“The CAN plant is not expected to restart in October, but later in the quarter. Most of the damage, including damage to property and loss of business, is insured.”

According to the OCI Nitrogen website, the two ammonia plants have a combined annual capacity of 1.1m tonnes/year, while the two melamine plants can produce a combined 150,000 tonnes/year.

In addition, the company’s CAN plant has the capacity to produce 1.4m tonnes/year of fertilizer, with the UAN unit featuring a capacity of 250,000 tonnes/year.