Production – Rio Grande (Brazil)

The site

The production unit is located in Rio Grande, in the southern part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a strategic site for serving an important part of the Brazilian market. The unit has a private pier in one of the main ports in Brazil, ranking third in fertilizer volume.

Production unit

Yara’s Rio Grande production site in Brazil has acidulation and granulation units. Annual production capacity of granulated fertilizers is around 800,000 tons. Ongoing improvement projects will boost annual production capacity to 1 million tons.

Products from the acidulation plant are SSP powder and TSP powder. The granulation plant provides granulated SSP and NPK.  In Rio Grande there are four blending and bagging units. Finished products can be delivered in bulk, bagged in small bags or bagged in big bags.

The site offers a competitive advantage for supplying the Brazilian market by truck, rail or barge. The private pier is another competitive advantage. The pier allows control of the handling of inbound raw materials and outbound finished products by barges or by seagoing vessels.  The pier also provides services for third parties. Total annual capacity for the pier is more than 2.5 million tons.

Sustainability

Yara Rio Grande has maintained a strong focus on constantly improving performance related to environmental, safety and quality issues.  Parts of the unit now have ISO 14001 and 9001 certification. The goal is for all units to be certified by the end of 2009.

Safety, quality of life and social and environmental responsibility are fundamental for the development of the unit and its employees. For this, in 2008, the Kaizen methodology was adopted, to continue to improve performance in safety, housekeeping and efficiency of the production processes.

Facts about Rio Grande

Production volume:

Fertilizer  800,000 tons

Rio Grande 2008