Market and product

OCI Nitrogen has restarted three calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) lines damaged in a fire at the group's Geleen site in late September, a spokesman for the Dutch fertilizer and chemicals group confirmed on Thursday.

Operations at various plants were disrupted by the blaze, with the 1.4m tonne/year CAN facility suffering the worst damage as the seat of the fire was in its basement.

While ammonia, urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) and melamine production restarted within weeks of the 30 September incident, the CAN lines only returned to operation last month.

No-one was hurt in the fire, which was triggered by a "small welding job that set the rubber conveyor belt of the CAN plant on fire and meant a new power supply system had to be installed," the spokesman disclosed.

"We restarted the CAN plant in February, with the three lines resuming operation sequentially," he added

"The units are not at 100% capacity yet, but they will reach their optimum level by the end of March.

"We are supplying CAN from the plants to the market for the spring application."