U.S. Gulf/Tampa: The Tampa market was quiet at $580/mt CFR.
May NYMEX closed April 10 at $4.655/mmBtu, up from April 3’s $4.470/mmBtu.
Eastern Cornbelt: Anhydrous ammonia pricing in the Eastern Cornbelt remained at $650-$680/st FOB regional terminals, with the low in Illinois and the upper end out of Indiana terminals.
Although very little planting was underway in the Eastern Cornbelt due to low soil temperatures, sources said preplant fertilizer applications were going down at a brisk pace in areas where fields were dry.
The lingering effects of a late and hard winter continued to impact rail and barge shipments of fertilizer, however. “Rail transportation is still a huge bottleneck, and it doesn’t seem to be improving or expected to improve anytime soon,” said one source. “This is putting additional pressure on truck demand.”
As for barges, a near-record amount of ice on lakes and rivers in the northern Cornbelt has slowed upriver movement. One source noted that commercial barges would normally be in St. Paul, Minn., by this time of year, but tows had barely reached the Illinois/Wisconsin border by early April.
Western Cornbelt: The fieldwork pace was picking up in parts of the Western Cornbelt last week, although wet ground continued to delay activity in some locations.
One Missouri contact said his trade area received anywhere from a half-inch to 5 inches of rain during the first week of April. As a result, many Missouri locations south of Interstate 70 remained too wet for fieldwork last week.
“We need lots of sunshine,” said one southern Missouri source at midweek. “There’s been no fieldwork so far this week, but probably by Friday we’ll get back in the field.”
Fertilizer supplies remained snug in the region, and sources were concerned that outages will become common as the application pace picks up. “Two weeks of hard running, and everyone will be scrambling for product,” said one contact.
Northern areas of the Cornbelt and the Northern Plains region were facing the most critical logistics hurdles this spring due to ongoing rail and barge delays. Sources said cold weather earlier in the season caused locomotive problems and forced rail carriers to reduce speed and unit train size, resulting in efficiency rates falling to only 46-48 percent. Once the system fell behind, it has been unable to catch up. “In the Dakotas, there’ll be a real problem,” said one contact last week. “They’re depending on rail to get fed, and it’s just not happening.”
Fertilizer prices remained firm in the region last week. One source said the preplant ammonia run was nearly over in central Missouri after a hectic application pace, but had not even started yet in some northern areas of the state. “There’s still quite a bit to go,” he said.
The anhydrous ammonia market remained in a broad range at $595-$670/st FOB regional terminals, with the upper end out of spot Iowa locations. Nebraska sources pegged the terminal market at $595-$615/st FOB on the low end, while Missouri contacts quoted the Palmyra, Mo., market at $650-$660/st FOB. Delivered tons were reported in the $650-$670/st range in Missouri from southern production points.
Southern Plains: Southern Plains sources reported a hectic fieldwork pace in early April, with corn planting well underway and cotton planting starting in Texas.
USDA reported that 10 percent of the Texas cotton crop was planted by April 6, slightly ahead of last year’s pace and the five-year average. “It’s been a very hectic two months, but we are getting quite a bit of corn in the ground so it is slowing down,” said one Kansas c