UPDATED: 03/10/2017 — see Change Log

OWNER: CF Industries Nitrogen LLC (CF Industries Holdings Inc)
PROJECT: Nitrogen production plant[memberful does_not_have_subscription=”1314-ammonia-industry-annual-subscription,1311-ammonia-industry-monthly-subscription,3338-ammonia-industry-30-day-subscription”]

COST (reported): None given
JOB CREATION (reported): 285 permanent — see Job Openings [LINK]
START-UP DATE (reported): 1951

CAPACITY	USGS[1]	COMPANY[2]	PERMIT[3]	ADJUSTED[4]
Ammonia	508,000 mtpy	570,000 stpy	[Membership required]	[Membership required]
Units: stpd, stpy, mtpd, mtpy = short/metric tons per day/year. [1] United States Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Yearbook, Nitrogen gives capacity in metric tons per year, calculated as “engineering design capacity adjusted for 340 days per year of effective production capability,” rounded to three significant digits. Source: most recent year, Table 4: Domestic Producers of Ammonia, http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/nitrogen/. [2] CF Industries 2016 10-K. Sources: linked below. [3] [Membership required]. Sources: linked below. [4] [Membership required]. See Methodology.

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SUMMARY STATUS:
The Yazoo City nitrogen complex has been in operation since 1951. CF Industries recently adjusted the product mix and expanded the industrial grade ammonium nitrate production capacity at Yazoo City.

COST: $7.5 million in 1951, and $12 million in 1966
JOB CREATION: 285 permanent — see Job Openings [LINK]
START-UP DATE: 1951, 1966

CAPACITY	USGS[1]	COMPANY[2]	PERMIT[3]	ADJUSTED[4]
Ammonia	508,000 mtpy	570,000 stpy GROSS 0 stpy NET	1,737 stpd	575,120 mtpy GROSS
Urea		50,000 stpy NET	625 stpd	206,952 mtpy GROSS 47,303 mtpy NET
Nitric Acid			3,030 stpd	1,003,301 mtpy GROSS
Ammonium Nitrate		1,035,000 stpy NET	HDAN: 2,750 stpd LDAN: 1,500 stpd expanded to 2,400 stpd	979,176 mtpy NET
UAN		160,000 stpy		151,370 mtpy
Units: stpd, stpy, mtpd, mtpy = short/metric tons per day/year. [1] United States Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Yearbook, Nitrogen gives capacity in metric tons per year, calculated as “engineering design capacity adjusted for 340 days per year of effective production capability,” rounded to three significant digits. Source: most recent year, Table 4: Domestic Producers of Ammonia, http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/nitrogen/. [2] CF Industries 2016 10-K, assumes average operation for 350 days per year. Sources: linked below. [3] Mississippi DEQ Title V permit, 2014, and Permits to Construct, 2015; some data converted from short tons per hour (x24). Sources: linked below. [4] Adjusted Capacity is in metric tons per year assuming operations for 365 days per year; gross capacity based on permit data, net capacity based on company reports. See Methodology.

FEEDSTOCK: Natural gas
END PRODUCTS: Urea (granular & liquor), DEF, Nitric Acid, Ammonium Nitrate, UAN

RESEARCH NOTES:
CF Industries recently upgraded the ammonia and ammonium nitrate units and adjusted the likely product mix at Yazoo City, according to its 2016 10-K published in February 2017. The gross ammonia capacity increased by 10,000 stpy, the net urea capacity increased by 30,000 stpy, and the net ammonium nitrate capacity dropped by 40,000 stpy despite a recent project to “convert Ag AN production into industrial grade.”

That project, to increase production of low density (industrial) ammonium nitrate, was set to cost “about $60 million,” and allows CF to meet its recent 10-year contract with Orica and Orica’s subsidiary, Nelson Brothers, to supply 700,000 to 800,000 stpy of industrial grade ammonium nitrate and ammonium nitrate solution, starting in 2017, at a price “tied to the cost of natural gas.”

As part of CHS‘s 2015 “strategic partnership” investment in CF Industries, CHS will have the right to buy up to 1,095,000 (short) tons of urea and 580,000 tons of UAN every year. According to a corporate presentation from November 2015, Yazoo City will provide 10,000 tons of UAN toward this commitment.

The current Yazoo City complex has one ammonia line (M. W. Kellogg, No. 3 Ammonia Plant), four nitric acid plants (individual capacities: 450 stpd, 1,150 stpd, and two of 715 stpd), and one ammonium nitrate line, producing either High Density (fertilizer) and Low Density (industrial) ammonium nitrate. Product ships out by rail, truck, and barge up the Yazoo River.

In 1951, the Yazoo City nitrogen complex became the first US fertilizer plant to be built and owned by co-operatives. According to a history of co-operatives in fertilizer production, published by the US Department of Agriculture in 1990, Mississippi Chemical Corporation (MissChem) was formed when “10,000 farmers bought $4.25 million of capital stock, cooperatives bought $250,000, and a county industrial revenue bond issue raised $750,000 to build [the] $7.5 million nitrogen plant.” They had decided to build their own supply chain “as a result of curtailed imports from Chile of nitrate of soda, a principal fertilizer used by Delta cotton farmers.”

In 1966, MissChem expanded the complex with a new $12 million ammonia plant. This Kellogg plant was, at the time, the largest in the world: it was the first ammonia plant with a rated capacity of 1,000 tons per day. At that time, the plant operated under a subsidiary of MissChem, called Coastal Chemical Corporation and, later, under a partnership between the two, called Miscoa.

MissChem left its cooperative roots to become a public company in 1994 and, in 1996, it bought the fertilizer assets of its sister company, First Mississippi, for “approximately $297 million.” Also in 1996, the Yazoo City complex was expanded at a cost of $130 million.

In May 2003, Mississippi Chemical entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and, in August 2004, it was purchased by Terra Industries Inc for $268 million, making Terra the “leading US producer” of UAN, ammonia, and ammonium nitrate.

In 2010, CF Industries bought Terra for ~$4.7 billion. At that time, CF only owned two nitrogen plants, albeit the two largest in North America, in Donaldsonville, LA, and Medicine Hat, AB. With the addition of Terra’s Donaldsonville units and its other plants in Courtright, ON, Port Neal, IA, Verdigris, OK, Woodward, OK, and Yazoo City, MS (as well as plants in Billingham and Severnside in the UK, and a 50% ownership of the plant at Point Lisas in Trinidad), CF Industries had become a “global industry leader.”[/memberful]

View larger map with all ammonia plants.

ADDRESS: 4612 Highway 49 East, Yazoo City, MS 39194, United States

WEBSITE: http://www.cfindustries.com/plants_yazoo-city-ms.html

REGULATORY SOURCES:

• USGS: Minerals Yearbook, Nitrogen [RECENT / ARCHIVE]
• EPA Emissions data: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Large Facilities: CF Industries Nitrogen, LLC – Yazoo City Facility [LINK]
• Risk Management Plan: Right to Know Network: CF Industries Nitrogen, LLC [LINK]
• Mississippi DEQ permit documents: CF Industries Nitrogen LLC [LINK], 2014 Title V Permit Modification [PDF]
• US Securities and Exchange Commission filings: EDGAR Search Results, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. CIK#: 0001324404 [LINK]

NEWS SOURCES:

• 11/05/2015: Seeking Alpha transcript: CF Industries Holdings (CF) W. Anthony Will on Q3 2015 Results [LINK]
• 02/13/2014: CF Industries press release: CF Industries Enters Into Long-Term Ammonium Nitrate Supply Agreements With Orica International and Nelson Brothers, LLC [PDF]
• 03/10/2010: CF Industries press release: CF Industries and Terra Industries Agree to Combine, Creating a Global Industry Leader [PDF]