By Vera Krasnova
In Veliky Novgorod, Acron opened the second stage of a complex for the production of granulated urea, the most concentrated nitrogen fertilizer. The capacity of the line will be 700 thousand tons per year, and together with the first stage launched in 2021, 1.4 million tons. Taking into account 700 thousand tons of carbamide, which is produced by traditional, prilivannaya technology, 2.1 million tons are obtained - this is the largest production of nitrogen fertilizers in Europe.
The company spent $65 million on the construction of the second stage, which is almost a quarter less than on the first stage ($85 million). The radical reduction in the project budget became possible due to the refusal of the services of the general contractor, whose functions were performed by the capital construction department of Akron itself. The latter, in turn, relied on Novgorod designers and engineers, without the involvement of third-party engineering companies. The construction of the plant and the installation of equipment were also carried out by local contractors.
Acron CEO Vladimir Kunitsky said at the opening ceremony that the implementation of this project during the sanctions period has become a real challenge for the company. And he was able to deal with it. For the first time, specialists of the mechanical repair production have manufactured a 16-meter granulator, which, in terms of its characteristics, is not inferior to Western counterparts. Builders laid 38,500 meters of pipelines and installed almost 4,000 steel structures. In general, the share of foreign supplies, compared with the first urea granulation unit, decreased by 2.5 times - 20% against 50%.
According to him, the development of the enterprise will continue, the investment program is calculated until 2025 and amounts to $1.5 billion. The fertilizer market is growing, in Russia in the first half of 2023 it grew by 3% year-on-year, while urea production at Acron increased by more than 17%.
this article originally appeared at expert.ru