U.S. Gulf: Granular barge prices started the week in the $440-$442/st FOB range, but fell back into the low-to-mid $430s/st FOB by midweek, with $435/st FOB cited as the most common number.
Still, others said prompt product was hard to find, and September tons were more common. Low water levels on the Mississippi River continued to be a nagging problem, delaying upriver movement because of limits on barge weights and on the size of tows.
The last done prill business was called $445/st FOB.
Imports were off 6 percent in June, to 219,056 st from the year-ago 234,061 st. They were level for the fertilizer year ending in June, however, to 6.616 million st versus the prior year 6.611 million st.
Eastern Cornbelt: Granular urea was quoted in the $495-$510/st range FOB regional terminals.
Western Cornbelt: Granular urea in the Western Cornbelt region was tagged at $495-$510/st range FOB in mid-August, with most dealer quotes reported at the $500/st FOB mark.
California: Granular urea pricing in mid-August was pegged at $570-$580/st FOB in California.
Pacific Northwest: Sources pegged the granular urea market at $530-$560/st FOB and $555-$585/st DEL in the Pacific Northwest, depending on supplier, location, and time of delivery.
Western Canada: Granular urea pricing was pegged at $630-$640/mt DEL in Manitoba, $635-$645/mt DEL in Saskatchewan, and $645-$660/mt DEL in Alberta.
Pakistan: TCP called a tender for 300,000 mt to close Aug. 27. The tender comes after TCP finished a round of tenders that also netted 300,000 mt.
Almost as soon as the last shipment was awarded, the government once again revised its evaluation of urea supplies and demand.
At first the estimate was that the country needed an additional 600,000 mt. By the first week of this month, however, the government only allowed TCP to import 300,000 mt.
Sources say the other 300,000 mt is still needed, but that the government will most likely try for a grant or loan from Saudi Arabia for the tons.
Even with the current soft urea market, sources say TCP will most likely have to hold at least three tenders to cover the amount it wants to import. The best guess is that offering companies will not offer any more than 100,000 mt at any one time.
The rules of procedures do not allow TCP to ask participating companies to match the lowest offer in the tender. As soon as the award is made, the expectations will be for TCP to call another tender.
Pakistan’s four offline urea plants on the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline (SNGPL) – Engro Fertilizer’s new 1.3 million mt plant, Dawood Fertilizers, Agritech, and Pak Arab – continue to suffer heavy financial loss due to the diversion of gas to power plants, and one of them has started laying off employees.
Engro incurred a loss of Rs311.198 million in the second quarter of 2012 due to lower sales and the closing of its plant on the SNGPL network. In the same period last year, the company posted a profit of Rs77.616 million.
Shahab Khawaja, executive director of the Fertilizer Manufacturers Pakistan Advisory Council (FMPAC), said all four plants have been closed for the past three months due to curtailments in gas supply. Agritech, one of the oldest urea plants, has filed a petition in labor court to lay off their work force of 3,000 employees, and the other plants will be forced to take similar measures if the situation does not improve. Khawaja questioned how the industry can survive under these circumstances.
Pakistan’s urea industry produced 4.685 million mt of urea during FY2011/12 (July-June), down 5.9 percent from the 4.979 million mt produced in FY 201