Shareholders in Pakistan’s Fatima Fertilizer have approved a plan to invest up to US$300 million in Midwest Fertilizer Corporation (MFC) which is building a nitrogenous fertilizer plant in Indiana. The project would make Fatima the first Pakistani company to have a foothold in the U.S. The plant, which will be the first new nitrogenous plant in the U.S. in 20 years, is expected to begin production in 2018 and will have a capacity of 2.59 million tons per year. Fatima is the main investor in the project and the $300 million in equity will be invested over a span of four years. The project has remained in question for months on concerns that Fatima-produced calcium ammonium nitrate was being used across the border from Pakistan in Afghanistan to make improvised explosive devices. Since these concerns arose, Fatima has made changes to its product packaging and has started work on reformulating its fertilizer to make it less explosive.
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