The fertilizer giant EuroChem, Russia’s largest producer of phosphate fertilizers and nitrogen, has picked a 915-acre site in St. John the Baptist Parish in Louisiana, the United States, for its envisaged $1.5 billion fertilizer plant and distribution centre. The company chose the site in the Baptist Parish instead of a state-owned land in Iberville Parish. The purchase price of the site near Edgard is not known. The interest of EuroChem in land in Louisiana only underlines the general trend of chemical companies wanting to construct a plant in this U.S. state.
The Russian giant announced its plans to build a urea and ammonia production plant in Louisiana already in mid-2013. At that time, EuroChem said that the plant would create 200 jobs paying $11.6 million annually on top of employing as many as 2,000 people during a four-year construction phase. The company’s spokesperson Jim Harris confirmed that the management was still intending to meet these numbers. If the company really succeeds to keep these hiring levels, it will be granted $6 million in economic development grants from the state. EuroChem has been working with state and local authorities in the past two years to find a proper site for the plant.
Mr Harris further confirmed that the company now had time until next year to find another buyer for the Iberville Parish site it had initially intended to buy. If it fails to find one, it will have to pay a penalty for walking away from the deal. EuroChem, however, thinks that it should not be difficult to find a buyer. “There is a fairly good feeling from EuroChem and (Louisiana Economic Development) and Iberville Parish that this is a good industrial site and it will attract buyers,” Mr Harris commented.
