PRODUCTION of ammonia at Yara Australia’s Pilbara operation is not expected to resume before late April at the earliest following a technical issue.

The Karratha plant produces 850,000 tonnes per annum of ammonia, a major component in the production of urea fertilisers.

These include liquid fertiliser, namely urea ammonium nitrate and anhydrous ammonia as made locally and used by some Australian growers.

In a statement from the Swedish-based parent company, Yara International said its Pilbara ammonia plant was currently not producing due to technical issues.

“The most recent assessment is that the ammonia plant might be closed for around 4-6 weeks while TAN production is expected to be able to run more or less as normal,” the statement said.

TAN, or technical ammonium nitrate, is used in explosives in the mining industry.

“Impact on annual volumes will be reduced by moving forwards maintenance work originally planned for later this year.”

According to the Yara Australia website, the Pilbara plant represents about 5 percent of the global traded ammonia market.

The disruption comes at a critical time for the fertiliser industry, with supply chains already hit hard by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Yara Australia yesterday stated an initial incident impacted some systems at the Yara Pilbara facility.

“The issue was contained with no threat to personnel or the environment,” the statement said.

“Repair work is required, and initial assessments indicate this could take around two months and curtail the production of ammonia and technical ammonium nitrate during this time.

“Yara well understands the importance of its products to customers and will work to bring the operations back online as soon as practical.”

Most of the facility’s output is exported via the Port of Dampier to Asian markets, including Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan.

Some is also used at the adjacent TAN plant, a joint venture between Yara Australia and Orica, which supplies the mining sector.

A further chunk of ammonia is fed into the domestic market, with the company stating in 2023 that it had customers on the east coast, as well as Western Australian fertiliser company CSBP.

A subsidiary of ASX-listed Wesfarmers, CSBP is the second-largest producer of ammonia in Australia, and supplies external customers as well as using it in-house in the manufacture of ammonium nitrate, sodium cyanide, and nitrogen fertilisers.

CSBP’s ammonia plant can produce up to 255,000t per year and can store 40,000t.

Grain Central has not been able to verify figures previously reported by CSBP that it used about 525,000t of ammonia a year, with around half sourced from imports.

A CSBP spokesperson said the company could not comment on “the operations or supply arrangements of another business”.

However, CSBP confirmed it still imported volumes of ammonia.

“In regard to CSBP, we are Western Australia’s second‑largest manufacturer of ammonia, and ammonia is an important feedstock for many of our products,” it said in a statement.

“Like others in the industry, we supplement our own ammonia production with imported volumes.

“It is standard business practice for us to continually monitor and manage our supply chain to ensure we meet customer demand.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story, initially published on March 23, said the site will be shut for two months following a power outage, as confirmed by a spokesperson for Yara Australia. This story has been updated following a response from Yara’s head office in Norway overnight.

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