DONALDSONVILLE, La. (AP) — An increased demand for fertilizer is one of the reasons Terra Industries plans to restart annual production of 400,000 tons of ammonia later this year in a $10 million expansion at Donaldsonville.
The move will create 20 to 25 new jobs.
Terra will make the fertilizer industry ingredient for the first time on site since late 2004, shortly after it acquired Mississippi Chemical and its Donaldsonville subsidiary, Triad.
Natural gas is a key energy component needed to produce the bulk chemical.
Beginning in the late 1990s, when natural gas prices were as low as $2 per thousand cubic feet, to 2003, when prices were 250 percent higher, employment at ammonia-related chemical plants in Louisiana's Mississippi River region fell from 3,500 to 1,500, economist Loren Scott noted in a 2003 report.
And while natural gas prices haven't fallen in the United States, overseas prices have risen to the point that Terra can handle the ammonia production at Donaldsonville at a lower cost than buying it from overseas producers as far away as Black Sea locations in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East.
''It's a positive thing,'' said Joe Ewing, Terra's vice president of investor relations and human resources. ''We're excited about starting it back up, and the time frame is soon.''
Terra will extricate itself from purchase contracts and complete the $10 million expansion in time to relaunch Donaldsonville production sometime after July, he said.
The plant site is just downriver from Donaldsonville near the Sunshine Bridge.
Since acquiring Triad, Terra has continued to operate a shipping terminal at the Mississippi River site and now employs 18. Most of the 20 to 25 new jobs filled will be full-time contractor positions that will handle maintenance and related work.
