ThyssenKrupp said in a statement its plant construction arm ThyssenKrupp Uhde had won a major order for designing and building fertiliser plants in Port Neal, Iowa, and Donaldsonville, Louisiana.”

The projects were ordered by fertilizer manufacturer CF Industries Holdings, and their combined value “exceeds €1.0 billion,” the statement said.

The Port Neal project will consist of an ammonia plant with daily capacity of 2,200 metric tons, a urea plant capable of 3,500 tons a day, and a urea granulation plant also capable of producing 3,500 tons a day.

Port Neal is “a strategically important location in the midst of the mid-west United States corn belt,” ThyssenKrupp said.

CF Industries, based in the US state of Illinois, and Iowa governor Terry Branstad announced a $1.7 billion expansion of the existing Port Neal fertiliser plant on Thursday at a packed press conference in Sioux City, Iowa, the Sioux City Journal.com reported.

The expansion at the two facilities would “significantly reduce the dependence of the US on fertiliser imports from the Middle East and North Africa region,” it said.

Iowa governor Branstad said that could save farmers in the state and the US Midwest millions of dollars. “It’s going to improve our profitability for agriculture,” he said, according to the Sioux City paper.

Torsten Gessner, head of ThyssenKrupp North America, praised the move. “This cooperation with CF Industries… will be another step towards improving the fertiliser plant infrastructure in the US,” he said in a statement.

“It also strengthens the market position of ThyssenKrupp’s plant engineering business in North America.”

AFP/The Local/mbw