Dyno Nobel, Cornerstone Chemical will invest a combined $1.025 billion for a new ammonia production facility and related upgrades in Waggaman, Louisiana. Additionally Incitec Pivot Ltd., the Australia-based parent company of Dyno Nobel, will invest $850 million to build the ammonia plant, providing a commercial foundation for Cornerstone to continue its planned investment of $175 million in maintenance, upgrades and infrastructure expansion at its site over a six-year period. Incitec
Dyno Nobel is a supplier of industrial explosives and blasting services. Cornerstone is the sole manufacturer of melamine in North America, and a manufacturer of acrylonitrile and inf sulfuric acid. And Pivot manufactures a range of industrial explosives and fertilizers.
The new Dyno Nobel plant will produce 800,000 metric tons of ammonia per year at Cornerstone Chemical's Fortier Manufacturing Complex on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Jefferson Parish.
“Louisiana is uniquely positioned to provide major supplies of natural gas to critically important energy and chemical manufacturers, and more and more companies are taking notice and investing right here in our state,” Govenor Boby Jindal said on Wednesday..
Dyno Nobel will develop the anhydrous ammonia plant on a site where an ammonia plant previously operated before closing more than a decade ago. Cornerstone already produces acrylonitrile, melamine and sulfuric acid at the Waggaman complex, and the ammonia plant will be integrated with Cornerstone's existing infrastructure.
To secure the project, the state will offer a competitive incentives package that will include the Industrial Tax Exemption and Quality Jobs programs for Dyno Nobel. Cornerstone Chemical will receive a Modernization Tax Credit of $3 million, payable in five annual installments, along with the services of LED FastStart, the nation's top-ranked state workforce training program. Cornerstone Chemical also is expected to utilize the Industrial Tax Exemption and Quality Jobs programs.
"We are excited to welcome the investment by Incitec Pivot to Louisiana," said Zoglio, the Cornerstone Chemical CEO. "The U.S. Gulf Coast economic model has changed due to the advent of advanced drilling and extraction techniques and the associated impact on natural gas pricing. Incitec Pivot's foresight of this paradigm shift, coupled with the brownfield offering by Cornerstone Chemical Company and project support provided by the State of Louisiana, will allow the resurgence of world-class ammonia production in the state."
