Ammonia Project
To strategically support,by providing key raw material, the downstream sectors already in operations at DFPCL and its subsidiaries, a world scale Ammonia facility of 1,500 TPD is being planned as a backward integration at Taloja at the cost of approximately Rs. 4,350 crores.
DFPCL and its subsidiaries currently purchase significant volume of Ammonia from the
international merchant market. The proposed greenfield Ammonia plant at Taloja shall be primarily captive plant meeting 100 % ammonia requirements of STL / DFPCL plants, manufacturing industrial chemicals, technical ammonium nitrate and NPK/nitrophosphate fertilizers. The captive ammonia plant shall help mitigate the risks
associated with importing ammonia from world markets.
Overall, the proposed project would deliver feedstock securitization and would help to
insulate downstream operations from ammonia price volatility and supply constraints observed over past few years. The plant is expected to be commissioned by Q1 FY 2024.
Project Rationale
All the three downstream businesses of DFPCL Group i.e. Industrial Chemicals, Crop
Nutrition Business (CNB) and Technical Ammonium Nitrate (TAN) require ammonia, which is a common feedstock.
Based on internal evaluation and evaluation by highly reputed industry consultants, clear consensus emerged highlighting the critical and strategic need of insulating the downstream investments with a long-term firm sourcing of ammonia by way of backward integration. Further, in the recent past, huge volatility in ammonia prices globally has been witnessed which makes it very difficult to manage profitability of the downstream businesses.
The new plant is based on best available technology and is highly energy efficient which will result in lower cost of production. The plant design meets strictest global environment and safety standards including those applicable in India thus protecting the environment and community in and around the proposed project site. Apart from this, there will also be significant saving in terms of logistics cost.
Key challenges in importing Ammonia
The proposed plant adresses following key challenges associated with Ammonia imports.
- Currently the DFPCL group imports ~2,82,000 MTPA of ammonia from world markets.
- With the ramping up of NPK’s volumes total import requirement would be ~4,74,000 MTPA
- Ammonia arrives at the JNPT port by special ship tankers, is unloaded in shore tank and then transported to the Taloja plant via road tankers
- JNPT is one of the busiest ports in India because of which almost every ammonia shipment incurs demurrage due to delays in berthing of the vessels. The delays cause demurrage and loss of production.
- Ammonia storage capacity at the port is not adequate for handling enhanced ammonia requirements of DFPCL group plants particularly post capacity expansions at Taloja.
- Most importantly the plant shall minimize countries’dependencyon current ammonia imports by almost 30 %, thus helping the country in securing the food chain related critical input supply.
