PhosAgro Group achieves record production of agrochemical products in 2023

RUSSIAN agrochemical producer PhosAgro group has increased its production of agrochemical products to a record 11,3 million tonnes in 2023, the company’s chief executive officer Mr Mikhail Rybnikov has said.

He announced the record increase in production at a meeting of the company’s management board held recently.

Mr Rybnikov said the record-setting results from last year, were achieved through efforts on the part of the management and workforce to implement a long-term development strategy, which is driving increased production of both high-quality fertilisers and key feedstocks.

He said the company realised that organic growth is the right path with the gradual modernisation of production facilities using the best available technologies.

Additionally, closer integration with sources of key feedstocks and a focus on sustainability, said Mr Rybnikov, enabled the bolstering of the company’s position as the largest and most reliable supplier of fertilisers prioritising Russian market and also strengthening competitive advantages in the global mineral fertiliser markets.

“In 2023, the commercial output of our production sites reached a record 11,3 million tonnes, including the production of over 11 million tonnes of mineral fertilisers, as well as feed and industrial phosphates.

“Despite the fact that our production of phosphate rock did not increase, we processed more than 9 million tonnes of it in a year for the first time,” he said.

“In 2023, we increased production of phosphate-based fertilisers by 2,0 percent year-on-year, with the output of our main DAP/MAP fertilizers increasing by 8,4 percent to a record high of over 4,5 million tonnes. I would also like to highlight the 12,9 percent year-on-year increase in MAP production, which was driven in part by our new production complex in Volkhov, which was built as part of our comprehensive long-term development programme.”

Mr Rybnikov said to drive increased production of phosphate-based fertilisers, they increased phosphoric and sulphuric acid output while also maintaining ammonia production at a high level.

He said the production of phosphoric acid, the main feedstock in the production of phosphate-based fertilisers, increased by 4,6 percent year-on-year in FY 2023 to more than 3,3 million tonnes driven by earlier upgrades to production units and more efficient operation of the equipment.

“We continued producing high levels of phosphoric acid in January 2024, exceeding our target by over 2 percent.

“Sulphuric acid production increased by 2,5 percent year-on-year in FY 2023 to over 8,1 million tonnes. This increase was the result of the improved operating efficiency of the sulphuric acid production unit in Cherepovets and the launch of a new sulphuric acid production unit in Balakovo at the end of 2023,” he added.-chronicle