PARIS, France (Reuters) —Yara, one of the world’s largest fertilizer makers, said last week it planned to halt output at its Belgian unit as part of a wider European reduction plan linked to soaring gas prices.
Fertilizers require large amounts of energy to be produced. The surge in gas prices has prompted several manufacturers, including Yara, to cut production.
The Norwegian company said in August it intends to cut ammonia production by 65 percent and ammonium nitrate, which is used in agriculture as a fertilizer, by 35 percent. It had not given details per site.
Annual production capacity at its Belgian site of Tertre, located near the French border, is 400,000 tonnes of ammonia, 950,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizers and 800,000 tonnes of nitric acid, the company said.
The halting of the factory will entail a drop of 10 percent in ammonium nitrate supply on the French market, which will be mostly compensated by its Montour-de-Bretagne unit in western France, Yara France chair Nicolas Broutin said.
The plant uses imported ammonia, similar to Yara’s other French fertilizer unit in southwestern France.
