30 october 2015

Belaruskali and Belarusian Potash Company announce that on October 26, 2015 the metal structure of the conveyor gallery collapsed at the Production Unit 4. The reasons for the incident are being ascertained, there were no injuries. The emergency occurred just ahead of the scheduled annual shutdown of the Production Unit for maintenance. Due to the scheduled maintenance and gallery repair works, the Production Unit 4 will be closed for 3-4 weeks.

The Production Unit 4 produces white MOP at a monthly production capacity of about 280,000 t, subsequently the availability of this product for the market will be limited for the duration of the repair works.

We inform that most shipments of white product will be carried out as planned and outstanding volumes will be delivered immediately after the Production Unit 4 resumes operations.

We apologize to our partners for any inconvenience this may cause and hope for you understanding, we guarantee that all our commitments for product deliveries will be met.  

Additionally, Belaruskali will close the Production Units 2 and 3 (250,000 and 270,000 t of monthly production volumes, respectively) for scheduled maintenance. Due to lower demand, each Production Unit will be stopped for 2-3 weeks. While this will reduce the available production levels of pink MOP, it will not affect the companies’ commitments for product supplies.  

As a result, we maintain our earlier full-year export volume guidance at 9 million t. In light of slow market, we anticipate this volume reduction will have a positive impact on supply and demand balance through 4Q 2015.