Puławy, September 2nd 2009

Press Release

"Puławy" Increases its Capex

One of the priorities of ZA Puławy is a dynamic development of its investment activity. In the financial year which has just ended, the Company increased its capital expenditure by nearly 50%. 2009/2010 will see further rise in capital expenditure, which will soar from PLN 160m to ca. PLN 400m.

The most important of the investment projects to be implemented in the current financial year is the modernisation of the Oxygen Generation Plant – Ammonia – Urea production line which is key for ZA Puławy’s operations. Construction of the new oxygen generation plant will ensure uninterrupted operation of the units and their improved performance. It will also allow the Company to increase its annual urea production by 270 thousand tonnes. The increased volume of urea production not only means higher production capacity of granulated fertilisers, but also of UAN, melamine (the first melamine production line is to be modernised and its output increased) and AdBlue, in the case of which annual production capacity is growing and is expected to reach 100 thousand tonnes.
The Company also intends to intensify the production of caprolactam to increase its output from the current 65 thousand tonnes per year to the expected 70 thousand tonnes per year. Such improvement will be possible thanks to, among other things, the construction of a new water demineralisation unit, which not only will secure more economically efficient water supply for the existing units, but will also allow the Company to start thinking about new investment projects at the Puławy Industrial Park and the Puławy Subzone of the Starachowice Special Economic Zone.

Similar benefits will be achieved thanks to the upgrading of the transformer station, which will secure power supply for the Company’s existing and future units.

A number of the ongoing investment projects are related to ammonia production. As in the case of the Oxygen Generation Plant – Ammonia – Urea project, by implementing such projects ZA Puławy wants to reduce ammonia emissions, but first of all it intends to reduce the consumption of electricity and natural gas in its production process.
As far as the pro-environmental activities are concerned, the largest project is the construction of a flue gas desulphurisation unit at the CHP plant. The Company has already been granted PLN 20m for the implementation of this project from the EU assistance funds. The technology which the Company has chosen gives a by-product in the form of ammonium sulphate – a fertiliser which ZA Puławy has offered to its customers for years. The Company’s pro-environmental activities also allow it to sell the emission units generated thanks to reduced emission of the nitrous oxide.

Another noteworthy area in the Company’s development activities is implementation of state-of-the-art IT systems supporting management of key business fields. For instance, the ERP-SAP system has been in place since July 1st 2009.

As far as other development projects are concerned, ZA Puławy is still committed to the coal gasification unit construction and the power station construction projects.