Tender shows new strength in urea prices

Bangladesh closed two tenders for 25,000 mt each for granular urea to different ports. In both cases, Chinese urea dominated the offers. The lowest offers showed a marked improvement in netback prices to China. The lowest offer in the tender destined for Mongla came out of the UAE at $339/mt CFR for a netback of $310.90/mt FOB. The best offer destined for Chittagong came from Aires Traders at $336.31/mt CFR for a netback of $310.31/mt FOB.

Each of these netback prices is higher than recent postings. The posted Green Markets price was $285-$300/mt FOB.

Sources are unsure how much of an impact this tender will have on the September 26 MMTC/India tender. Bangladesh has often commanded a better netback because of the relatively small quantities of its purchases – 25,000 mt at a time – compared to the hundreds of thousands of tons bought by India at one time.