Moscow – PhosAgro (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, has commissioned a new phosphate-potash fertilizer production line with a capacity of 100 ths tonnes/year (PKS-100), together with a finished product warehouse with a 1,500 tonne capacity. Total investments into the project, which PhosAgro financed with its own funds, amounted to over RUB 500 million.
Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko and PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev attended the opening ceremony.
This new fertilizer production line is an important part of PhosAgro’s strategy to 2020, which was developed with the participation of the National Mineral Resources University in St. Petersburg. The new capacity uses leading edge technologies and equipment, as well as automated control systems. It is also fully compliant with stringent environmental regulations.
The technology for producing this new fertilizer grade was developed by the Y. V. Samoilov Scientific Research Institute for Fertilizers and Insectofungicides, a PhosAgro subsidiary and Russia’s only R&D centre dedicated to crop nutrients. PhosAgro subsidiary Mining and Chemical Engineering developed the documentation and engineering for the new line.
The fertilizer grade is highly effective because each granule contains all of the nutrients. The particles are also very hard and they do not cake.
This universal complex fertilizer is useful for soy and other legumes, as well as potatoes, fruits and vegetables. The balanced nutrient mix means the fertilizer is appropriate for use anywhere in Russia and around the world (especially in Latin America). Interest in the new fertilizer grade is high in Russia, as domestic agricultural producers currently do not have access to similar products.
PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev said: “This new capacity is an important part of our strategy to 2020, which aims to increase the number of fertilizer grades PhosAgro produces as well as total capacity for the high-quality fertilizers we sell in Russia and worldwide.”
Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said: “This investment project was supported by regional authorities; it has created new high-quality jobs in Volkhov, increased Metachem’s tax payments, and it offers domestic agricultural producers a new fertilizer to help them achieve their import substitution programmes.