VNII Galurgy Stock Co., St. Petersburg, Russia:

T. P. Levchenko, Chief Specialist, Candidate of Economic Sciences
I. S. Konstantinov, First Category Engineer, konstantinov@galurgy.sp.ru

In the work are considered potassium salt production performances in the USSR during the period from commissioning of the First Potash Plant (1934) to 1990 and in the Russia until 2014. Potash industry of the USSR is most developed in 1960–1988. During this period there were put into operation 8 potash plants, 3 concentrators in the existing operations; potassium salt production has increased 10.5 times at average annual growth 8.75%, the nutrient content in the natural ton of potash fertilizers increased on average in the USSR from 38,9% in 1960 to 57,3% in 1990 and in the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) from 46,7% to 60,3%. Since 1968 until 1991 the Soviet Union occupied the first place in the world for the production of potassium salts. In 1990 there was a marked decline (19.3% in 1988 to the Soviet Union and by 27.3% in the Russian Federation) as a result of the abolition of the Soviet Union preferential prices for potash fertilizers for agriculture and the transition to settlements with the countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance at world prices. The decline in potash production continued until the mid-nineties. With the revival of the situation on the foreign market, growth has resumed, production in Russia increased in 2014 by 38.6% compared to 1988. Ore output increased in the same period by 13.7%. In terms of potassium salt production Russia since 2002 and until present time is currently ranked second in the world after Canada. A significant increase in the volume of potash production in Russia and improvement of its quality to world levels allowed to increase in the period 1970–1990 the export of this product by 2.7 times for the USSR as a whole and by 2.9 times for the RSFSR.

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