As the New Year begins, everything is renewed. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all units for their support and assistance throughout the past year. To summarize the work of the past year and lay out the industry’s development strategy for the coming year, the Sub-association is specially convening the “First Working Meeting of the Calcium-Magnesium Fertilizer Sub-association for 2023.”

The 2022 annual summary is as follows:

1. The Calcium-Magnesium Fertilizer Association will join forces with its member units to jointly participate in industry-related conferences and exhibitions, organize market seminars, enhance communication and collaboration among industry players, promptly stay abreast of industry trends, grasp the direction of industry development, and strive to maintain the healthy development of the market.

2. Following a boiler explosion incident at a local enterprise, the association immediately called on enterprises to conduct special self-inspection and self-check activities focused on safety, thereby enhancing their awareness of safe production, eliminating potential risks, seizing market opportunities, and providing assurance for the safe operation of enterprise production processes.

3. In the face of recurring COVID-19 outbreaks this year, the subassociation has been actively communicating with local governments to address the challenges in transporting raw materials during the pandemic. While strictly enforcing epidemic prevention and control measures, we have ensured safe production and the normal supply of products, avoiding a “one-size-fits-all” approach. We have implemented rigorous controls over all transportation vehicles and personnel, verifying the “three codes,” body temperature, and nucleic acid test results. All transport vehicles are subject to strict point-to-point closed-loop management and sealed accordingly, ensuring that drivers do not leave their vehicles when entering or leaving the facility, thereby fully safeguarding the normal order of enterprise production and operations.

4. We have invited experts from Shanxi Agricultural University and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to provide specialized training for nitrocalcium-magnesium fertilizer enterprises. In the next step, we will continue to strengthen inter-departmental collaboration and further leverage universities or research institutes as platforms to organize more practical and instructive training and exchange activities for enterprises, thereby promoting in-depth cooperation among industry, academia, and research.

5. Since October 15, 2021, Chinese customs has mandated inspection for the export of fertilizer products. Following the implementation of the mandatory inspection and certification policy, the export volumes of member companies in the association have plummeted, while inventories have continued to rise. Many small and medium-sized enterprises now face severe financial difficulties, with some on the verge of running out of cash flow. After gaining insight into the situation, the association organized its member companies to gather all relevant issues and engaged in multiple rounds of communication with local governments and relevant customs authorities. This effort led to a comprehensive deepening of cooperation between Jinyang Customs and the People's Government of Jiaocheng County, transforming bottlenecks into smoother processes and reversing the difficult situation. The association also organized training sessions for enterprises, providing guidance on how to effectively cooperate with inspections. These measures not only improved the efficiency of enterprises’ exports but also significantly alleviated the operational and production pressures they were facing. The Jiaocheng County Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Jiaocheng County Government hereby present the Calcium-Magnesium Fertilizer Branch with the “Outstanding Contribution Unit” award.

6. Actively promote enterprises to optimize and upgrade their processes and equipment, striving to address issues such as the emission compliance of solid dust in granulation processes and nitrogen oxides in acid-hydrolysis processes, thereby ensuring stable plant operations and achieving energy conservation, consumption reduction, and sustainable development in the calcium-magnesium fertilizer industry.