CF Fertilisers to close one of its two UK plants

CF Fertilisers, the UK’s biggest fertiliser producer, is set to close one of its two plants in England.

The company will close its site at Ince in Cheshire and will instead optimise its Billingham facility near Middlesbrough.

Both sites produce ammonia as their base product, which can either be sold as ammonia itself or upgraded to other nitrogen products, including ammonium nitrate (AN) and nitric acid.

The Ince factory has not produced ammonia since September 2021, while Billingham is the largest ammonia, AN and carbon dioxide (CO2) production facility in the country.

CF Fertilisers said that following a strategic review, the Billingham facility is “better positioned for long-term sustainability as it has sufficient capacity to meet all forecasted domestic demand for AN fertiliser from CF Fertilisers UK, is more efficient than the Ince manufacturing facility, has an installed industrial customer base and has the ability to import ammonia”.

Natural gas

Operations at both plants were halted in September 2021 as a result of high natural gas prices, which the company said made production at the sites unprofitable.

“The cost of producing nitrogen fertilisers is highly dependent on the cost of natural gas, which is the principal raw material and primary fuel source used in the ammonia production process for manufacturing facilities in the region.

“Natural gas forward curves suggest that nitrogen facilities in the UK and Europe will be the world’s high-cost marginal producers for the foreseeable future, presenting a constant challenge to the sustainability of current operations,” it said.

Jobs

As of 1 June, the company employed 544 individuals – 177 at the Billingham manufacturing facility, 283 at the Ince manufacturing facility and 84 in corporate functions.

There could be up to 283 redundancies at the Ince site as a result of the closure.