Amonil secures one month of orders

Chemical fertilisers producer Amonil Slobozia has postponed production shutdown by one month for late April or early May, after having succeeded in finding orders for this period. The company announced a month ago it would slash 900 out the 1,100 current jobs, but this step will be delayed, too. The chemical plant has been struggling with the substantial rise in the natural gas prices – the main raw material for fertilisers, for a number of years now. A new problem came up this year: the dwindling price of fertilisers on the international market. Approximately 90% of Amonil’s output are exported, as domestic demand for fertilisers is extremely low. “The price of urea is currently as low as $120-$130/tonne, while our production cost is about $150/tonne,” Amonil manager Victor Dobrescu says. Natural gases became 5% more expensive early this month, after having risen nearly 60% in price in several stages last year. ZF