U.S. Gulf: Prompt granular barges, which generally include pre-river close barges right now, were reported at a premium last week. Sources said they were trading within the $433-$441/st FOB range, and were predicting late in the week that the next trades will be in the $440-$445/st FOB range.
Barges that would load after Oct. 10 or so – or too late for river close – were seen as being at a significant discount at $418-$425/st FOB.
Prills were called $420-$425/st FOB.
Eastern Cornbelt: Granular urea pricing had reportedly slipped to $480-$490/st FOB in the Eastern Cornbelt region.
Western Cornbelt: Granular urea pricing had reportedly slipped to $475-$490/st FOB regional terminals in the Western Cornbelt, with the upper end reflecting dealer reference levels from some suppliers. Several sources pegged the common dealer market in the $475-$480/st FOB range in the region last week.
Southern Plains: Granular urea pricing had reportedly slipped to $465-$475/st FOB the Tulsa market, with several sources touting $470/st FOB as the common dealer price. Sources reported good urea movement in the region, with long truck lines at Inola, Okla., at midweek.
South Central: Granular urea pricing had reportedly slipped to $470-$480/st FOB most terminals in the South Central region. Some locations were still posted as high as $505/st FOB, but sources reported no sales at that level.
Southeast: Granular urea was pegged at $500-$510/st FOB port terminals in the Southeast, with rail-delivered tons also quoted in that range in the region.
Parts of the Southeast continued to receive the country’s share of rainfall last week. Areas of northeastern Georgia and northern Alabama were under a flash flood watch early in the week.
One Carolina source said his location has been both “blessed and plagued” with heavy rains as growers struggle to get the corn harvested.
India: The STC tender closed Thursday, Sept. 20.
Leading up to the tender, sources figured the final price would be in the upper $390s/mt CFR to just under $410/mt CFR. By and large, that is what happened.
Sources commented after the MMTC tender last month that $400/mt CFR should have been the average price at that time. In the end, because of a low offer, the final sale price was $389/mt CFR for only 415,000 mt.
The ETA offer of $390.47/mt CFR in this tender, however, took away any idea that $400/mt CFR would be broken this time.
Just hours before the tender documents were opened, traders commented that there was a real possibility that at least one offer would be way off the beaten path. The results of that out-rider offer could include STC taking just a few hundred thousand tons instead of the nearly 1 million mt expected.
India is still short about 3 million mt for this season and for preparation for the next. Anticipation before the tender was that STC would take 1-1.5 million mt. If STC tries to hold other companies to the ETA offer, one trader said the company would be lucky to get 100,000 mt booked.
Excluding the ETA and Qafco offers, the average offering price was $402.80/mt CFR.
The tally for the tender follows.
| Offering Company | Origin | Quantity ‘000 MT | US$/mt (UAE Dinars) | Discharge Port | ||
| Firm | Option | FOB | CFR | |||
| Qafco | ||||||