TRAMMO, INC.
NEW YORK, NY

Ronald P. Stanton leaves International Ore and Fertilizer Corporation, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, to found Transammonia, Inc. in New York City, with the intention of specializing in the international trade of ammonia. Shortly thereafter, the company begins trading in fertilizers and fertilizer materials. At around this time, Peter Baumann joins Transammonia and remains a loyal employee until his passing in March 2009, focusing on the interests of the company in all his endeavors. The close relationship between Ronald P. Stanton and Peter Baumann is crucial to the development of the company. Throughout his entire career and in his final position as Group CEO, Peter Baumann serves as a role model for many of the traders and professionals who are to join in subsequent years. A major milestone in the history of Transammonia is the establishment of Transnitro, a joint venture with Nederlandse Stikstof Maatschappij (NSM), Dutch State Mines (DSM), and CSV (NSM’s and DSM’s joint marketing company). Transnitro specializes in imports of urea and urea ammonium nitrate solution into the United States and operates successfully for many years. The ammonia business grows rapidly, and Transammonia soon becomes one of the leading independent marketers and transporters of anhydrous ammonia. These activities are managed from a newly established office in Paris. Another milestone in Transammonia’s history is the foundation of Trammo Gas and Petrochemicals Ltd (TGP), focusing on LPG trading, which soon reaches volumes of up to 1.5 million metric tons per year. One early innovation here is the move into floating storage: TGP develops a floating storage and transshipment operation off Vlissingen in the Netherlands to supply the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region with LPG in winter. In subsequent years, further floating storage is added in Thailand, the Philippines, China, and South Korea. With international LPG trade growing rapidly, TGP soon becomes a key player with 22 vessels, including approximately ten VLGCs (Very Large Gas Carriers) trading both east and west from the Arab Gulf. Trammo Gas and Petrochemicals Ltd invests in an LPG terminal in Brunsbüttel, Germany, with the aim of expanding the company’s European trading. In the United States, Transammonia also positions itself as an owner of LPG assets by purchasing the Sea-3 propane terminal in Newington, New Hampshire. As a consequence of more stringent air quality standards in the United States and the need to reduce SO2 emissions from combustion engines, molten sulfur becomes available, with refineries in Texas. Transammonia bridges the gap between supply and demand by transporting the product by railroad to phosphate fertilizer plants in Florida. Today, Trammo owns several hundred railcars dedicated to the transportation of molten sulfur. Transammonia establishes a petrochemicals trading desk with seven traders. This marks the birth of Trammochem, focusing on chemicals merchandising and trading. The initial emphasis is on aromatics trading. Transammonia establishes T/A Terminals, Inc. to acquire an ammonia storage terminal in Meredosia, Illinois. This asset allows the company to import and store ammonia and then further distribute it in the U.S. domestic market, thereby supporting the company’s efforts to develop a major presence in the United States. Trammochem is entrusted with the marketing rights for methanol produced by Beaumont Methanol Corporation at the former DuPont plant in Beaumont, Texas, then the largest capacity methanol plant in the United States. When several years later the plant is resold, Trammochem’s marketing rights cease, but the Division has in the meantime established itself as a global methanol merchandiser. Transammonia establishes Ferpro, a joint venture with Sinochem to import and market fertilizers in China. Ferpro successfully continues its activities until 2000, when China gradually increases its own domestic fertilizer production. From a net importer in the early 90s, China is now becoming a net exporter of fertilizers. As difficult market conditions lead Transammonia to downsize its international LPG business, the company starts to merchandise and trade LPG in the U.S. domestic market. To support its U.S. business, Trammo’s Gas Division, headquartered in Houston, Texas, leases storage space in the salt dome storage caverns in Mont Belvieu, Texas, and Conway, Kansas. In the late ’90s, the product portfolio of the Fertilizers & Commodities Division is expanded with the addition of worldwide sulfuric acid merchandising and trading. The Gas Division constructs a propane import terminal in Tampa, Florida, to further support its LPG marketing business in the U.S. domestic market. Both the terminals in Tampa and Newington, New Hampshire, and the leased storage capacity in Mont Belvieu, Texas, and Conway, Kansas, provide Trammo Gas with flexibility to respond to high demand during the winter season. While the Chemicals Division expands its product portfolio by adding olefins, the Fertilizers & Commodities Division acquires a strategic holding in a urea plant in Fudao, China, together with the majority shareholder China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC). The Division subsequently further cements its presence in the country by establishing a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) for domestic merchandising and trading in China. Other strategic moves by the Fertilizers & Commodities Division include the Trans Sud joint venture with Sudmetal to merchandise and trade sulfuric acid in Chile as well as a significant expansion of North American and Northwest European fertilizer storage and distribution activities. The system ultimately expands to 27 U.S. and four European locations dedicated to the storage and distribution of fertilizers. Mississippi Phosphates Corporation, a U.S. producer of DAP located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, entrusts Trammo with the exclusive marketing of its DAP production. The Fertilizers & Commodities Division expands into other non-fertilizer products by adding petroleum coke and coal to its portfolio. A freight trading desk also commences operations in January 2010, rapidly becoming a recognized vessel operator. Today, Trammo Bulk Carriers operates a fleet of handysize vessels, which transport mostly third-party cargoes. Trammo’s Fertilizers & Commodities Division continues to diversify in the soft commodities sector by adding rice trading to its activities.