A wave of shutdown of European nitrogen fertilizer production is underway. Some are announced as temporary, others termed permanent, but all cite the spike in prices of natural gas, the input for production, as the reason.
Yara, the world’s biggest chemical fertilizer producer, announced Aug. 25 it will cut nitrogen fertilizer output in Europe by 50%. Yara has already shut down European plants at several locations. A spokesman for the EU Council said they will take up the severe situation in September. No action can be expected of them, since they are promoting the drastic reduction of “chemical” fertilizer in their 2020 Green Deal “Farm to Fork” directives.
In Britain, the nation’s major fertilizer firm, CF Fertilizers (a subsidiary of U.S.-based CF Holdings) announced this week that it will temporarily halt nitrogen fertilizer output at its Billingham plant. In July it announced the permanent shuttering of its plant in Cheshire, at Ince, which had already temporarily stopped production in fall 2021, because of high gas prices (that is, before the 2022 Russian operation in Ukraine).
In Poland, Azoty Grupa SA, the largest chemical firm in the nation, this week announced major cuts in nitrogen fertilizer. The Agriculture Minister has called for the government to come up with an emergency plan.
