Fertilizer firms gear up to fill truck demand

by capacity, can convert 800,000 tons of urea into DEF annually.

Total U.S. demand for DEF is about 1 million tons of urea equivalent, a fraction of North America’s annual consumption of 14 million tons of urea, Frost said. But he added that DEF demand is likely to double within five years as 60 per cent of U.S. heavy diesel trucks are replaced by models with loweremission engines.

Engine technology called selective catalytic reduction (SCR) uses DEF to trigger a reaction that converts nitrogen oxides, a pollutant, into natural components of air that are then expelled through the tailpipe.

The market hinges on the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, which pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, continuing the country’s move to lower-emission trucks.

The U.S. administration is unlikely to roll back emissions standards because trucking companies benefit from using more fuelefficient vehicles and manufacturers have made huge investments in technology, said Allen Schaeffer of Diesel Technology Forum, a nonprofit group.

Global consumption of DEF may reach 10 million tonnes of urea equivalent annually by 2027 from 2 million currently, said Adam Panayi at Integer Research.

There may already be too much DEF available, said Andy Austin at Mansfield Energy Corp., which buys DEF from CF, Yara International ASA and

and distributes it to XPO Logistics Inc., UPS and FedEx Corp. for their trucks.

“I would say there is a glut,” Austin said. “That risk is certainly there for (producers).”