High Natural Gas Prices Cause CF Industries To Close Two U.K. Fertilizer Sites, Farms’ Chicken Supplies Hit

Sept. 18, 2021 (EIRNS)—The U.S. firm CF Industries Holdings, Inc. has announced the shutdown of two fertilizer production sites in Billingham and Ince, Great Britain, due to the price increases of natural gas, the feedstock. The firm’s stock dropped some 10% on Wall Street, compared to June.

Besides the reduction in fertilizer for farming, the lack of CO2, which is a byproduct of manufacturing fertilizer, will hurt poultry slaughtering, which uses the gas to incapacitate the birds before processing. The British Poultry Council CEO Richard Griffiths said this week that there could be a massive impact, on top of other problems which have already driven down weekly chicken output by 5 to 10%. Christmas turkey availability could be down 20%. Prices for fuel have doubled this year.

Griffiths described the situation, “I would expect it [fertilizer plants shutting] to be having impacts very quickly. At the moment, we’ve got all the Brexit effects, including labor shortages, all the COVID add-ons. And now, we’re seeing these supply-chain problems emerge at a time when we really don’t need it.”