U.S. Gulf: Granular barges were reported to have started the week as high as $355/st FOB, but fell off to as low as $327/st FOB for prompt. Both ends were the extremes, with most players putting the market in the $330s/st FOB. Chinese product was reported to have traded in the $317-$325/st FOB range.
Prills saw some erosion, and were now called $340-$345/st FOB.
Urea imports were up 91 percent in July, to 276,977 st from the year-ago 144,767 st.
Eastern Cornbelt: Sources pegged the granular urea market at $385-$410/st FOB in the Eastern Cornbelt, down another $10-$20/st from last report, with the low reported out of spot Illinoi River terminals. The Cincinnati, Ohio, market was quoted at the $395/st FOB level.
Reference prices reportedly remained as high as $455/st FOB at some inland locations in Ohio, but sources reported no new sales at that level.
Western Cornbelt: Granular urea had reportedly slipped to $390-$400/st FOB most regional terminals in the Western Cornbelt.
Northern Plains: The granular urea market remained at $380-$390/st FOB the Twin Cities, with delivered tons pegged at the $425-$430/st mark in North Dakota.
Effective Sept. 2, Agrium’s granular urea postings moved to $425/st FOB North Dakota terminals at Alton, Colfax, Scranton, and Carrington; $425/st FOB Marion, S.D.; and $430/st DEL in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Those levels were up $15/st from Agrium’s July 1 postings in those locations.
Great Lakes: Granular urea was pegged at $405-$425/st FOB in the Great Lakes region, with the low quoted by regional sources out of the Burns Harbor, Ind., market. Agrium’s granular urea posting in Wisconsin moved to $430/st DEL on Sept. 2, up $15/st from the July 1 reference price.
Dealers were struggling to secure shipments of replacement tons, while regional growers were seeding alfalfa and planting winter wheat. “The bins are still not full, but we’re working on it,” said one source. “Supply is very thin,” added another. “Some terminals are just starting to get some DAP and urea in. Potash is nonexistent, unless you get it off the Illinois and Ohio rivers.”
Northeast: Granular urea was pegged at $415-$425/st FOB Fairless, Penn., up $5/st from last report, with the low end also quoted out of the East Liverpool, Ohio, market. Delivered urea was quoted at the $445/st level to points in southern Pennsylvania.
India: The MMTC tender closed with close to 2.3 million mt offered. Prices reflect higher netbacks for producers than the July IPL tender, but still not as much as producers had hoped for. Sources peg the netback for the bulk of the offers back to China at $288-$295/mt FOB. Producers had been arguing for $300/mt FOB for the past few weeks.
The fly in the ointment for MMTC is the Berrychem offer. The company offered 68,000 mt at $302.77/mt CFR into Krishnapatnam or Gangavaram, about $6/mt lower than the main body of offers.
At first traders were concerned that MMTC would be locked into requiring the other offering firms to match the Berrychem offer or walk away. However, a more careful reading of the tender documents, including the four addenda, showed that MMTC could make other arrangements for pricing based on individual ports. It also could ignore the Berrychem offer if it desired.
Rejecting a low price would be politically difficult, said one trader. As the industry was still digesting what all the numbers meant, a consensus was growing that MMTC would have to set prices for each port and ask the traders to match those prices.
In the end, coming up with a series of prices for each discharge port is what MMTC did. Below are the c