<article><p class="lead">Russia-based fertilizer producer Eurochem has signed an agreement to purchase the Serra do Salitre phosphates project in Brazil from Norway's Yara. </p><p>The project, located in southeastern Brazil's Minas Gerais, is scheduled to bring on stream a 1mn t/yr phosphates plant, producing MAP/NP, as well as SSP and TSP, in 2023. The project will reach its target output in 2024, Eurochem forecasts.</p><p>The project has a 1.2mn t/yr phosphate rock capacity, with rock reserves of over 350mn t.</p><p>The mine and beneficiation plant are already operating, producing 500,000-600,000t of phosphate rock. The project will also include a sulphuric acid plant, a phosphoric acid plant and a 400,000t storage facility for finished fertilizers.</p><p>Eurochem will purchase the project, into which Yara entered in 2014, through a shares purchase with a cash consideration of $410mn. The transaction will be completed in six months, subject to regulatory approval, Yara expects.</p><p>Yara had taken full control of the Serra do Salitre project after completing the purchase of the remaining 40pc stake in Galvani Industria, Comercio e Servicos, as <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/1767423">announced in October 2018</a>. </p><h3>All eyes on Brazil</h3><p class="lead">Brazil is an agricultural powerhouse and the world's largest importer of MAP fertilizer, with <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2175291">imports hitting a record 4.76mn t last year</a>. The country is a top producer of soybeans, for which phosphate-based fertilizers are key. Brazil is set to produce 144mn t of soybeans in 2021-22, according to latest US Department of Agriculture (USDA) projections.</p><p>Eurochem has increasingly sharpened its focus on Latin America in recent years, increasing fertilizer sales to the region to <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2185613">5.09mn t in 2020</a>, up by a fifth on the year.</p><p>Eurochem last year shifted trade flows of phosphate fertilizers, largely in favour of Latin America, after the <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2185330">levying of duties on Russian-origin fertilizers</a> by the US Department of Commerce in February. Latin America accounted for a quarter of total sales last year, with Brazil taking 22pc, Eurochem said. </p><p>Yara retains a notable presence in Brazil, expanding its operations with the recent inauguration of a granulation complex with targeted output up to 1.2mn t/yr in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, as <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2201211">announced at the end of March this year</a>. The firm also operates major complexes in Sao Paulo state, with a production facility in Cubatao <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/1677517">purchased from mining firm Vale in 2018</a>, as well as the Paulinia SSP facility.</p><p>Yara's fertilizer sales to Brazil dropped by 4pc to <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2234935">2.21mn t in the second quarter</a>. </p><p class="bylines">By Harry Minihan</p></article>