A drone has probably hit another major nitrogen plant in Russia, with unconfirmed reports of a 21 March strike on a facility in Togliatti, in the southern Samara region.
Market participants have pointed to the TogliattiAzot (Toaz) plant, which has just over 1.7mn t/yr of prilled urea capacity. The amount of damage sustained at the plant is unclear. Toaz is a part of the Uralchem group of companies. There has been no confirmation of the strike by the parties involved.
This potentially marks the second drone strike this month on major Russian nitrogen plants, following news of an attack on KuibyshevAzot (Kuaz) on 11 March. Kuaz is also based in Togliatti and has around 800,000 t/yr of combined granular and prilled urea capacity.
The frequency of drone strikes on Russian nitrogen plants has increased this year, with producer Acron’s Dorogobuzh facility likely to be down until May following a sizeable hit on 25 February. That has tightened the domestic ammonium nitrate (AN) market considerably during the peak consumption period and was probably the key driver behind the country’s move to temporarily halt AN exports for a month.
