Hamburg, Germany Plans Ammonia Import Supply Chain; Fertiglobe May Take Equity Stake in Terminal
en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 11, Covestro, Fertiglobe and MB Energy signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate establishing an ammonia supply chain for industrial users in Germany and Europe through the planned ammonia import terminal at Blumensand in Hamburg, Germany. Under the current division of roles, Fertiglobe will study supplying ammonia to Europe through the terminal and evaluate making an equity investment in the terminal; MB Energy will be responsible for the planned terminal and related storage and transport infrastructure; and Covestro will evaluate procuring ammonia from the terminal for use as a raw material in chemical production or to meet hydrogen supply needs. The cooperation is still at the feasibility and commercial scheme evaluation stage, and no formal supply contract, terminal investment decision or final offtake agreement has yet been formed.
In the next stage, the three parties will jointly evaluate terminal capacity, potential import volumes, delivery methods and options for onward transport from Hamburg to industrial users, with the supporting logistics scope including pipeline, barge and rail transport. The assessment will cover not only conventional ammonia but also low-carbon ammonia and renewable ammonia, and will verify the carbon intensity of different supply options, the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and certification requirements related to low-carbon and renewable hydrogen.
MB Energy plans to build and operate the relevant import terminal at Blumensand in Hamburg. This cooperation connects Fertiglobe's global ammonia production and seaborne supply capabilities, MB Energy's storage and transport infrastructure and Covestro's industrial demand side. Fertiglobe currently has urea and merchant ammonia production assets in the UAE, Egypt and Algeria, with a combined urea and merchant ammonia production capacity of approximately 6.6 million tons per year, and can organize exports through multiple ports in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Arabian Gulf.
For Covestro, ammonia is an important raw material in the production system for polyurethane raw materials such as MDI and TDI. In February this year, Covestro and Fertiglobe also signed another memorandum of understanding with TA'ZIZ to study supplying ammonia to Covestro sites in Europe, China and the United States, and to evaluate low-carbon ammonia, green ammonia and supporting infrastructure. This Hamburg cooperation further translates the previous global supply study into a specific import terminal and European logistics route, but it has still not entered the formal procurement or construction stage.
MB Energy has also recently continued to build low-carbon fuel logistics capacity in northern Germany. The company has previously disclosed its expansion plan for the Blumensand storage facility in Hamburg and has carried out port storage, transport and supply chain cooperation around projects such as methanol and synthetic fuels. If this ammonia project continues to advance, the next steps will need to focus on determining the terminal's design capacity, the project investment amount, whether Fertiglobe will actually take an equity stake, the scale of Covestro's offtake and the timing of the first supply.
