Potash producer Belaruskali to make new kind of fertilizer — report

Belarus’ state-owned fertilizer group Belaruskali plans to make a new kind of crops nutrient in partnership with Chinese companies in an effort to diversify its portfolio.

According to Belaruskali’s director general, Ivan Golovaty, the company is also mulling a number of investment options involving a Chinese chemical company, the country’s news agency Belta reported.

Those projects include the formation of a new firm focused on the making of fertilizers by using Chinese technologies, the article said.

More competition, either in terms of new fertilizers or more mines, is not exactly what the potash market needs these days. Global prices, while relatively stable so far this year, remain weak due to oversupply, declining farm incomes and weak demand from India and China.

Those factors haven’t stopped companies for moving ahead with plans to open new mines. German K+S AG (FRA:SDF) is expected to open its Legacy project in Saskatchewan, Canada, before the end of the second quarter this year, while the Garlyk mining and processing factory in Turkmenistan began operations last month.

Russia’s EuroChem, in turn, is building two mines in Russia, and Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) is moving ahead with construction of its vast mine beneath a U.K. national park. The York project is set to start producing in 2018, initially generating 10 million tonnes per year of polyhalite – a form of potash that is used in plant fertilizers –, before it enters a second phase that will double that production to 20 million tonnes a year.