The production of nitric acid is very closely linked to the manufacture of fertilisers, and this makes it difficult to give accurate figures for the quantity produced. Nitric acid plants are often sited alongside ammonia production facilities. The nitric acid is then used directly to manufacture fertiliser, without any transportation of nitric acid. Estimates give the market in traded nitric acid as about 10% of the total production.

Nitric acid production is thus intimately involved with the production and demand for nitrogenous fertiliser. As solid urea is increasingly used as a nitrogenous fertiliser, rather than ammonium nitrate, the growth in nitric acid production is now being restricted.