Joplin Facility Fills Need for Feed in the Southwest
Lynn Lawson, Plant Engineer, checks the weight of bagged 21% monocalcium phosphate. Each of the bags carries the American Feed Industry Association Safe Feed/Safe Food seal.
PotashCorp's Joplin, Missouri plant has added several products to its offerings for the animal feed industry in the Southwestern United States and Mexico as its high-quality dicalcium phosphate (DCP) and monocalcium phosphate (MCP) have been well received since the company purchased the plant in March 2002.
While it has the capacity to produce 180,000 short tons per year of DCP and MCP, Joplin now also supplies customers with DFP (defluorinated phosphate) and feed-grade micro prill urea. These products are produced in North Carolina, Illinois and Georgia and shipped to Missouri for distribution.
"The proximity of the facility to feed customers in the Southwest and Mexico provides them with high-quality product and allows quick response to their needs," said Paul Shoup, Operations Manager at Joplin. "This is critical since many customers operate with minimal inventories and expect 'just-in-time' delivery."
"One good measure of PCS Joplin's vitality is the number of trucks delivering raw materials to the facility and the number of truckloads of product leaving," said Shoup. In 2006, the plant handled more than 5,900 shipments.
PotashCorp products serving crop producers and the food and industrial sectors are also being warehoused and distributed from Joplin. Potash is stored and distributed to fertilizer customers, while the warehousing and distribution of food-grade and tech-grade phosphoric acid began in March.
To meet PotashCorp standards for product quality and safety performance and to reduce air emissions, Joplin has done major upgrades of equipment and controls. Completed projects include installation of a Programmable Logic Control (PLC) system to direct the production process, improved granulation equipment and additional screening equipment to improve product quality.
Environmental improvements included a new dust collection system and a more efficient process scrubber system to reduce ambient dust and emissions. More effective fall protection systems and equipment guarding were installed.
The Joplin plant is Safe Feed/Safe Food certified, as are all PotashCorp North American feed plants.
An ongoing modernization effort that includes increased use of computers throughout the plant and the addition of a more efficient natural gas combustion system to the product dryer has improved productivity and energy efficiency.
Community Involvement
The local community has also benefited from PotashCorp's presence in Joplin.
In 2006, local purchases were over $1 million and cash donations to the United Way, McKinley Elementary School and other community organizations totaled over $8,000.
The partnership with McKinley school includes donations for extra supplies for each teacher at the beginning of the school year, gifts of a new book and a school sweatshirt for each student at Christmas, the gift of a book for each student at the end of the school year and the donation of computers and monitors no longer in use at the facility.
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