U.S. Gulf/Tampa: The markets remained quiet last week. February imports were off 23 percent, to 495,743 st from the year-ago 643,232 st. July-February imports were off 4 percent, to 4.66 million st from the year-ago 4.85 million st.
Eastern Cornbelt: The Eastern Cornbelt endured another stormy blast last week, this time from a powerful system that first pounded the Southern Plains region before moving east.
Central and southern Illinois were hit with strong winds and 1-2.5 inches of rain at midweek, while parts of Indiana experienced hail, heavy rains, and localized flooding. Similar conditions were also reported in northern Ohio, where midweek thunderstorms produced rain and winds that caused minor flooding and knocked out power in some areas.
Prior to the moisture, several sources reported a heavy fieldwork pace in early April, although minimal planting has taken place in the region. An Ohio source said fieldwork had been “crazy busy” in his location for the past two weeks, with growers and dealers focusing on alfalfa and grass hay fertilization, wheat topdressing, and applying preplants on rowcrop ground.
Illinois sources continued to quote the ammonia market at $780/st FOB or DEL last week. The upper end of the regional range was quoted at $785-$800/st FOB in Indiana and Ohio, depending on location. The dealer market FOB Huntington, Ind., was tagged at $795/st.
Western Cornbelt: A powerful spring storm dumped heavy snow on parts of Nebraska last week, and also pounded Iowa and Missouri with strong winds, hail, and heavy rain.
The precipitation put a stop to what had been a brief but busy period of field activity in some locations. A southern Missouri source at midweek said fertilizer had been moving out of his location every day from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. since April 4. “It’s fast and furious,” he said. “A lot of corn has been planted in this area.”
That was not the case in many other areas of the region, however, where sources continued to complain of a very late start to spring planting. One source said a lot of corn needs to be planted in a short time, and some areas missed their window for preplant ammonia, meaning more UAN and urea will be needed for sidedress.
Another source suggested that growers in his area may switch from UAN to urea to sidedress corn because of tight UAN inventories.
Sources continued to quote the dealer market for ammonia at $720/st FOB in Nebraska, $740/st FOB in western Iowa, and up to $760/st FOB in eastern Iowa and Missouri. Delivered ammonia was in the $760-$770/st range in the region.
Southern Plains: A powerful storm left ice, snow, and rain across much of the Southern Plains early in the week, and saw temperatures fall from the 70s to the low teens in less than 24 hours in some locations.
One Kansas source said more than an inch of rain fell in his location before the precipitation turned to ice, causing power outages and dropping temperatures to below freezing at midweek. Lows fell on April 10 to a record 12 degrees in Denver, Colo., and 18 degrees in Goodland, Kan., and 50 mph winds produced blizzard conditions in northeastern Colorado.
The freezing temperatures raised some concern about the winter wheat crop in Kansas. Some corn has also been planted in the region, but is not yet up in the areas hit with the coldest temperatures.
Although warmer weather was in the weekend forecast, the wintry conditions made for minimal fieldwork in the region last week. “We’ve been relatively busy,” said one Kansas source, but he acknowledged that not all the wheat is topdressed and no corn was seeded in his trade area. “It’s getting late,” he added.
The anhydrous ammonia market was tagged at $670-$680/st FOB most region