Yara’s Pilbara ammonia plant remains offline two months after power outage, squeezing Asian nitrogen supply

Yara Australia’s Pilbara ammonia facility in Karratha, Western Australia, is expected to remain offline for approximately two months following a power outage in late March that damaged critical systems, according to CRU Group’s BC Insight. A prolonged curtailment that removes one of the largest non-Gulf sources of seaborne ammonia at the worst possible moment for Asian nitrogen markets.

The plant has an annual ammonia capacity of around 850,000 tonnes, representing roughly 5% of globally traded supply. Most of its output is exported through the Port of Dampier to Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. A portion also feeds the adjacent technical ammonium nitrate plant operated in partnership with explosives manufacturer Orica. Both ammonia and TAN production have been curtailed since the outage began.

Orica said in a supply update on April 16 that it expected Yara’s plant to restart within weeks — sooner than the initial two-month estimate — but as of BC Insight’s May 20 report, no confirmed restart date had been issued by Yara’s Norwegian head office.

The disruption arrives at a particularly sensitive moment. Seaborne ammonia supply is already under severe pressure from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 24% of globally traded ammonia normally flows. With the Pilbara outage now running into its ninth week, Asian buyers are facing a compounding shortage: Gulf volumes cut by geopolitics, and the largest Pacific-basin alternative is now offline due to equipment failure. The gap is pushing buyers in northeast Asia to seek prompt supply from Oman, Egypt, and other Atlantic basin producers at elevated freight costs.

Source: BC Insight / CRU