India, the world’s second-biggest consumer of urea, is boosting production of the crop nutrient in a bid to end imports in the next five years.
The South Asian nation, where agriculture makes up about 14 percent of the economy, produced 22.2 million tonnes of urea in the year ended last month, compared with consumption of about 29 million tonnes during the period, according to data from the Indian Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
The country imported more than a quarter of what it consumed from Oman, China and Iran.
“We are in the process of reviving ailing plants, restart closed units, expand existing projects and build new ones,” ministry Joint Secretary Dharam Pal said in an interview in New Delhi. “The target is to wipe out urea imports completely by 2022.”
Increasing local supplies of the nitrogen fertilizer would help shield Indian farmers against global price fluctuations and limit government subsidies, allowing for greater spending to spur the rural economy.
The goal also ties in with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to boost domestic manufacturing, as he seeks to create more jobs in the world’s second-most populous nation.
Imports surged from near negligible levels in the fiscal year ended March 2001 as consumption outpaced domestic supplies, according to a report by Projects & Development India Ltd, a state-run consultant.
Urea imports stood at 61,688 tonnes in the year ended March 2001, the ministry told Indian parliament in 2003.
The ministry is studying proposals to revive loss-making Madras Fertilizers Ltd and Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore Ltd, Pal said.
The government is also planning to restart five idle facilities owned by the Fertilizers Corp of India and Hindustan Fertiliser Corp.
State-run energy firms Indian Oil Corp, Coal India Ltd and power producer NTPC Ltd would together execute a 180 billion rupees (US$2.8 billion) turnaround plan for three of the factories in the eastern part of the country.
Shares in Madras Fertilizers yesterday rose as much as 5.4 percent to 30.25 rupees in Mumbai, gaining for the sixth trading session in a row.
National Fertilizers Ltd added as much as 4.9 percent to 77.80 rupees, while Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd advanced as much as 1.6 percent to 84.85 rupees.
Another plant in India’s northeastern state of Assam, among the oldest in the country, will be shut down and replaced with a modern facility, Pal said.
The Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corp is to be able to produce more using the same amount of natural gas.
A new urea plant of 784,351 tonnes per year is to be built to replace the two existing units of 200,000 tonnes and 245,000 tonnes each.
The global demand for nitrogen fertilizers is expected to grow 5.6 percent to 108.3 million tonnes in four years through next year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Asian nations, led by China and India, are expected to account for 58 percent of the increase, the agency said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”