Grupa Azoty wants to play a significant role in ammonia imports to the European Union

Grupa Azoty chce odgrywać istotną rolę w imporcie amoniaku do Unii Europejskiej

It is worth knowing that the raw material is also one of the most important cost areas – both in the context of production and in relation to its emissions.

Ammonia in fertilizer production

– Crucially, to produce 1 ton of ammonia, at least 950 m3 of natural gas is needed. Considering the huge share of gas costs in the production of fertilizer companies, more and more producers decide to abandon the production of ammonia as part of expensive technological processes involving gas and choose to import the finished semi-finished product, i.e. ammonia – Grupa Azoty reported in a press release.

Thus, cost optimization, development of a new business area using its own port infrastructure and the pursuit of reducing emissions are the main reasons why Grupa Azoty is interested in importing ammonia.

Grupa Azoty: financing of the Polimery Police project extended until August 30 this year.

Ammonia import

The Group plans to purchase ammonia after the completion of routine maintenance of the unloading system, i.e. from October this year.

– It is worth recalling that urea or nitric acid used to produce ammonium nitrate solution and then nitrate fertilizers is made from ammonia. In 2023 alone, ammonia imports to Europe amounted to 3.5 million tons. It should be expected that due to the increasing requirements related to climate policy and goals within the framework of energy transformation and due to high gas prices in Europe, this trend will intensify. As a consequence, this may cause fertilizer producers to gradually move away from technological processes using gas – it was stated in a press release.

– Over 3 million tons of ammonia are consumed in Poland, which is almost 3 billion m3 of gas. In 2024, ammonia imports to the European Union are still growing – from the beginning of the year to the first days of August, they amounted to 1.9 million tons, and over 140 ships from 9 export countries arrived in 14 countries in Europe. For example, in the first six months of this year alone, a fertilizer producer from Norway imported as much as 277 thousand tons of ammonia from outside the EU. In turn, the Netherlands, being a hub for the gas market, imported almost 100 thousand tons of ammonia by August this year. As Grupa Azoty, we have no doubt that the energy transformation will affect the further increase in imports and we want to use our potential to play an important role in this process, especially considering how much impact gas costs have on the final prices of our products. It is also worth noting that, although this was not the assumption of the ETS system and the RED III directive, currently the largest blue and green ammonia projects are being developed outside the European Union and these are the directions that we are analysing in the context of import – says Hubert Kamola, Vice President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty SA, responsible for, among others, the Agro and Chemical Segment, market protection and strategic purchases.

– At Grupa Azoty, we are currently planning to develop the ammonia terminal. Today, we have a capacity of over 50 thousand tons of storage capacity for ammonia in the entire Group. We plan to scale the terminal by building new transshipment capacities – we are moving towards new tanks and expanding the railway traction. The needs of Grupa Azoty are one thing, but we also have a list of companies that would like to cooperate with us, also in the purchase of ammonia. We have no doubt that the aspect of maritime logistics in business is becoming increasingly important and we want to use the potential of the port infrastructure of Grupa Azoty to fully develop this new direction of our business, while optimizing production costs and reducing the Group's emissions – comments Andrzej Dawidowski, Vice President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty SA, responsible for, among others, the Plastics Segment and Logistics.