Rivneazot suspends production amid weak demand

MOSCOW. April 2 (Interfax) - Rivneazot, a unit of Group DF's fertilizer division Ostchem, suspended production of ammonium nitrate, ammonia and lime saltpeter in April due to a drop in demand for its main products, Ukrainian media reported, citing information and analytics agency Infoindustria.

Work on shutting down the plant began on March 30. Rivneazot, Ukraine's second largest nitrogen fertilizer producer by capacity, produced about 5,000 tonnes of UAN 32 and 34,000 tonnes of saltpeter in March and about 107,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in the period since the start of 2024, Infoindustria data showed.

Ukrainian saltpeter producers shut down for less than a month in 2022, the agency recalled.

Ostchem launched a UAN production line at Rivneazot on March 20, 2024 with capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year. The project is aimed primarily at farmers in western Ukraine and meeting their growing demand for UAN.

Group DF said earlier that the launch of UAN production at Rivneazot was the second stage of Ostchem's investment program, which calls for gradually increasing capacity to produce the most popular types of fertilizers in Ukraine, UAN and urea. The first stage of the program to produce UAN involved launching a production line at Cherkasy Azot with annual capacity of 1 million tonnes.

Ukraine uses about 850,000 tonnes of UAN annually, of which 280,000 tonnes are imported from Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria and from outside Europe, Group DF said.

Group DF consolidates the assets of Dmitry Firtash in the gas distribution, chemical, titanium and port sectors, as well as agriculture and media. Ostchem, the group's nitrogen division, consolidates the largest mineral fertilizer producers in Ukraine.