Plants of the nitrogen holding Ostchem produced 520.6 thousand tons of mineral fertilizers in the first quarter of 2024.

According to Group DF's announcement, Cherkasy "Azot" produced 404,300 tons, and "Rivneazot" - 128,000 tons.

The structure of production is quite stable: ammonium nitrate remains the unchanging leader (246,000 tons produced), the second place is KAS (123,800 tons), and the third place is urea (123,500 tons). The production volume of IAS slightly increased compared to last year, amounting to 15.8 thousand tons, ammonia — 9.08 thousand tons.

"If we compare the production results of Ostchem for the 1st quarter of this year with the same period last year, when our factories produced 515,500 tons of mineral fertilizers, we will see that the growth of production has actually stopped. The reason: the Ukrainian market is flooded with imported fertilizers. In the first quarter of 2024, imports amounted to 701.2 thousand tons, exceeding domestic production by 35%. Imports continue to kill domestic production. Four fertilizer producers have already been stopped — OPZ, Dniproazot, Rivneazot, and Sumikhimprom,” commented Oleg Arestarkhov, head of Group DF's corporate communications department.

According to him, Ukrainian chemical plants are primarily losing the market for urea: in the 1st quarter, Ukraine produced 123,500 tons, while imports amounted to 181,000 tons. 88% of all imported urea was imported from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, countries friendly to Russia. Today, Poland is also increasing its position as the strongest importer of fertilizers to Ukraine.

"Poland today is flooded with cheap Russian and Belarusian fertilizers, they did not fall under EU sanctions. They redirect all surplus fertilizers from the Polish market to Ukraine," Arestarkhov added.