HIP–Azotara (), or simply Azotara, is a Serbian mineral

fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...

and

nitrogen compounds The chemical element nitrogen is one of the most abundant elements in the universe and can form many compounds. It can take several oxidation states; but the most common oxidation states are −3 and +3. Nitrogen can form nitride and nitrate ions. ...

company, with the headquarters in

Pančevo Pančevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Панчево, ; ; ; ; ) is a list of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the South Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is located on the shores of rivers Timiș (ri ...

, Serbia. It was founded in 1975.

History

In 1962, a Yugoslav industrial giant - "Hemijska Industrija Pančevo" (eng. Chemical Industry of Pančevo") was founded with headquarters in

. In 1975, it was split into two companies which are in close proximity - HIP-Azotara (for mineral fertilizers) and HIP-Petrohemija (for petrochemicals). HIP-Petrohemija was built on the success of HIP-Azotara, and only by 1990, the companies were completely separated. HIP-Azotara never claimed its share in the ownership of HIP-Petrohemija, as both were in the state-ownership. In 1999, the company facilities were targeted and bombed during the

NATO bombing of Yugoslavia The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Serbia and Montenegro, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombing ...

; estimates are that around 250 tons of liquid

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...

had leaked into the ground and the waste water channel as a result.

2006–2009

In April 2006, HIP-Azotara was

privatized Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

and sold to the Lithuanian-Serbian consortium (Arvi & Co, Sanitex, and Univerzal-holding) for 13.1 million euros.

2009–2021: Srbijagas takeover

The 2006 privatization was cancelled in January 2009, and 55 million euros of debt was converted to the ownership shares, with the Serbian state-owned gas company

Srbijagas Srbijagas (full legal name: '' J.P. Srbijagas Novi Sad'') is the state-owned natural gas provider in Serbia with headquarters in Novi Sad. History Srbijagas was established on 1 October 2005 as a result of restructuring the integrated petroleum c ...

set to become the majority stakeholder with 81.6% of shares. In April 2012, it was announced that 130 million euros of debt was written off. In March 2013, Srbijagas formally took over the company. From September 2018 until May 2021, the HIP-Azotara was in bankruptcy procedure.

2021–present: Promist

In May 2021, it was sold to the Novi Sad-based company Promist for 650 million

dinars The dinar () is the name of the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, with a more widespread historical use. The English word "dinar" is the transliteration of the Arabic دينار (''dīnār''), which was bor ...

. In May 2022, it was announced that there are plans for the creation of facility for blue hydrogen production in the future in HIP-Azotara.

References

External links