Cibra company to invest in new fertilizer factory to serve Brazil’s northern agriculture

Cibra Fertilizantes, a company based in Bahia, whose partners are the American Omimex and British Anglo American groups, took the first steps to build a factory in São Luís do Maranhão, less than 10 kilometers from the port of Itaqui.

Earthworks on the 100,000 square meters area of the new mixer’s area began last week, and the unit will have the capacity to manufacture 500,000 tons of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium-based fertilizers per year – a group of macronutrients known as NPK. The project is scheduled to be completed in December 2023.

The company plans to serve mainly farmers in the so-called “Matopiba” region comprised of the states Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia, the latest agricultural frontier developed by Brazil.

A “small area” of Mato Grosso may also receive fertilizers from the new plant, even though the company is finalizing the construction of a similar factory in Sinop, in that very same state. “If it were a country, Mato Grosso would be the fourth in the world in agriculture,” explains Franco.

The company now has 13 units in Bahia, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul, in addition to the two under development. The two factories under construction are Cibra’s first greenfields (from the ground up) in the country and are part of a R$ 1.5 billion growth plan that began last year and will last through 2026. The funds are raised through cash and the capital market.

Franco did not detail the locations of the upcoming projects but added that the goal is to double Cibra’s production capacity by 2026 to 5 million tonnes. In 2021, the company delivered 2.05 million tonnes of fertilizers and recorded revenue of BRL 5 billion. The projection for this year is to increase sales by 12%, to 2.3 million tonnes, reaching close to R$ 8 billion in revenue.

If the planned 2022 results are realized, Cibra will swim against the current. Market players expect a reduction in the consumption of fertilizers in the country. The American consultancy StoneX, for example, projected that fertilizer deliveries could drop 7.2% this year to 42.6 million tonnes compared to 2021. Cibra’s estimate for the market in Brazil is similar – the company expects a reduction of 5% to 8%.

According to StoneX estimations, the Bahian firm competes in the market with market leaders such as American Mosaic and Norwegian Yara, who have 22% and 18% market shares in 2021, respectively.

Source: Valor Econômico

To read the full original article, please go to: https://valor.globo.com/agronegocios/noticia/2022/09/12/cibra-fertilizantes-investe-em-fabrica-no-matopiba.ghtml

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