For Viet Nam oil and gas enterprises of which PVFCCo is a member, 2020 is the peak of hard time when suffering duo impacts by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lowest ever oil price.

2020 is am extremely tough year businesses around the world in general and Vietnam in particular. However, as a rule goes, this one’s difficulty can be the other’s opportunity. Also, as it is said, opportunities only come to those who are well prepared to catch them. Petrovietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation, a joint stock company listed on the stock exchange under the stock code DPM, is one among such enterprises.

For Vietnamese oil and gas enterprises to which PVFCCo is a member, 2020 is the peak of difficulties when being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lowest vever oil price, international trade has almost reached a deadlock, but for PVFCCo, those said are opportunities that bring great effects if timely gripped.

Seizing the chance of low raw material price, DPM has postponed the planned overhaul of Phu My Fertilizer Plant, running the plant at its max. capacity.

Not only supplying inland, taking the opportunity when fertilizer manufacturers in the world have to suspend export activities due to the Covid-19, PVFCCo immediately executed foreign orders with the largest ever volume.

To say is somehow easy, but to make a potential opportunity come true is not easy at all.

Taking actions to secure an absolute safety in operation

At a very early stage, when the number of SARS-Cov-2 infecteds in Vietnam was still quite low, no case was found in Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria – Vung Tau provinces, where the headquaters and plant are located, PVFCCo was aware of this danger and with no delay implemented health care measures and guidances from the Ministry of Health, preventing the disease from spreading, taking care of employees physical conditions, maitaining a smooth operation of plant.

The Division in charge of Safety – Health kept all staff updated with information about Covid-19, making known conditions of its growing, spreading, clinical symptoms of infecteds, etc. The company implemented synchronous solutions to prevent epidemics in the workplace such as temperature checking for all visitors and employees before entering; Workers are fully equipped with masks, antiseptic liquid and are warnned of instructions; enhancing hygiene, spraying disinfectants at entire workplace, etc.

The company quickly shifted the working mode towards online activities, limited business trips to even those regions, where no infected found.

There have been various initiatives to secure safty being applied during this time which are not seen in normal conditions and even now no ones else think of. At Phu My Fertilizer Plant, they came up with a “UV sterilizer box” to ensure all working tools are disinfected. In the canteen, dinning tables were put as double distant as normal, each table accommodated only 2 seats on the same side with no opposite seats. Bowls and chopsticks were kept separately for each serving, not shared like before. Employees were also divided into groups to dine in turn in order to minimize the density of dinners.

At the headquarters and Phu My Fertilizer Plant, employees were divided into at-site & on-line working groups, key staff was carefully separated, well prepared to cope with the worst case of infection.

Ensuring safety and hygiene for employees at Phu My Fertilizer Plant.

Phu My Fertilizer Plant employs modern equipment and technology from Europe (Italy, Denmark, Spain). In 2020, the Plant planed for a turaround with a huge worload of thousands of work items. Overhauls oi the past show that this is a very complicated job it is even harder now when there may not be assistances by foreign experts from licensing companies as the entire Europe is embarressed by Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, the plant also underwent an unexpected shutdown for maintenance in 2019, therefore, after a careful consideration, the company management decided to postpone the planned overall maintenance, but to keep running the plant at its maximum load, highest ever since it commercially started 17 years ago, reaching 868 thousand tons of urea per year, much higher than its name plate of 800,000. Owing to timely grasping the opportunity of low material prices, despite of a deep drop of urea price (far below the ecpected one) that caused seriously low revenue of fertilizer enterprises, the profit of PVFCCo not only unchanged but also increased significantly.

In such an unusual context of 2020, PVFCCo launched a new product – Phu My KeBo – urea plus trace elements for coffee, fruit trees and vegetables. This is a rich nitrogen fertilizer added up with supplementary Zinc and Boron enhancing nitrogene and phosphate metabolizing, fertilizing, yielding, contributing to farmers cropping efficience – one of the goals that PVFCCo had been pursuing for years.

Phu My Kebo was launched and welcomed in 2020.