One of the largest liquid fertiliser vessels ever to visit Great Britain docked at Port of Sunderland on February 20, 2023.
The Torm Australia brought much-needed nitrogen from Trinidad, reducing the UK’s traditional reliance on fertilisers sourced from domestic and near-continental suppliers that are in short supply.
The fertiliser will be stored at Brineflow’s new purpose-built, deep-water fertiliser terminal before being processed and delivered to directly to farms throughout the country.
Not only does the new terminal give the UK reliable access to global supplies of fertiliser, it’s also fast becoming a critical piece of the nation’s infrastructure, with sufficient capacity to meet peak demand in the spring to replace sources of fertiliser production that have been curtailed.
“This is the first vessel to open up new global fertiliser markets for the UK and will place Sunderland at the heart of UK agricultural supply industry with the lowest environmental impact,” the chairman of Brineflow, John Fuller OBE, said.
“We’re already planning subsequent voyages and exploring the onward shipping of this imported product to other destinations in the UK, including our sister facility in Great Yarmouth, and even exporting to Europe by smaller ship tankers.”
The 49,999t Torm Australia is the first of many giant tankers to dock at the Sunderland terminal following the signing of a strategic joint venture between Brineflow and German agricultural giant Helm Ag in November 2022.
Headquartered in Hamburg, it’s a producer of fertiliser with extensive liquid nitrogen [UAN] manufacturing capabilities in Trinidad, meaning it can ship large vessels to the British market from an area unconstrained by European gas shortages.
“The UK’s reliance on European fertilisers produced with Russian gas has caused severe damage to our food supply and the economy, however the joint venture with Helm Ag will help secure our food supply,” Mr Fuller added.
“We’ll have the capacity to deal with producers far and wide, making UK farmers far more competitive while bringing costs down for consumers.”
