Mitsui buys U.S. stake

Mitsui buys U.S. stake

TOKYO (Nikkei): Mitsui & Co. has bought a stake in a midsize New York fertilizer company Agrifos L.L.C. for an estimated three billion yen, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Sunday that company sources revealed.

Agrifos makes phosphoric acid fertilizer and exports it to Asia. It was established in 1996 after individual investors purchased the rock phosphate mines and fertilizer plants held by U.S. oil giant Mobil Corp.

Production capacity totals about 700,000 metric tons, making it around the sixth largest maker of phosphoric acid fertilizer in the U.S.

The trading house has also spent some 30 billion yen to build a joint venture plant with Tomen Corp. and local companies in Indonesia to produce about 660,000 tons of liquid ammonia a year. The plant is currently under construction.