Rivne Azot suffers from the Ukrainian state policy

In the first half of this year, Rivne Azot (part of Group DF) produced only 375.6 thousand tons of nitrogen fertilizers, including over 280 thousand tons of ammonium nitrate and 78.8 thousand tons of lime-ammonium nitrate.

“In the first half of the year, the enterprise operated on a full production cycle for only a month and a half. By the beginning of July 2020, there were favorable conditions for working with a full load of workshops. However, such a load didn’t happen since the state decided not to impose restrictions on the import of nitrogen fertilizers to Ukraine. Due to the dominance of Russian imports coming to Ukraine through Belarus, Poland, Latvia, Turkey and Georgia, Ukrainian chemical enterprises as Rivne Azot have no chance to increase its production. Moreover, we are forced to cut jobs because of the government’s ill-considered industrial policy,” said Mykhailo Zabluda, Chairman of the Board of Rivne Azot.

According to his statement, Ukrainian producers cannot compete with importing suppliers in the domestic market. Ukrainian enterprises have to purchase natural gas for such a higher price that the consumer is more likely to choose a cheaper imported product than a local one.