U.S. Gulf: The urea market was fairly quiet last week, with new trades moving close to week-ago ranges. New granular trades were put in the $306-$315/st FOB range, with most citing the $310-$315/st level.
Prills remained at $315-$330/st FOB.
Eastern Cornbelt: The urea market in the Eastern Cornbelt remained under pressure, prompting one regional source to say he was “having a hard time recommending fall ammonia with urea as cheap as it is.”
Illinois sources quoted the granular urea market at $350-$360/st FOB for prompt pull and $370/st FOB for spring prepay. Ohio sources pegged the prompt market at $355-$370/st FOB last week, with the low at Cincinnati and the upper end inland.
Western Cornbelt: The granular urea market continued to slip, with sources quoting the low end at $350/st FOB St. Louis, Mo., last week. The upper end of the regional range was pegged at the $370/st FOB level in Iowa on a spot basis.
Northern Plains: The Twin Cities granular urea market was reported at $355-$360/st FOB, down another $5-$10/st from last report. Sources reported the delivered urea market in the Northern Plains at $385-$395/st last week, with the upper end of that range also reported FOB Carrington, N.D.
Great Lakes: Granular urea pricing had reportedly slipped to $360-$395/st FOB in the Great Lakes region, down some $30-$40/st from September pricing levels, with the low reported in Wisconsin and the upper end FOB Webberville, Mich. Michigan sources quoted the dealer market in the $385-$395/st FOB range last week, depending on location.
Northeast: Granular urea pricing had reportedly fallen to $370-$385/st FOB in the Northeast, down some $10-$15/st from last report, with the low FOB East Liverpool, Ohio, and the upper end quoted out of the Fairless, Penn., market.
India: The STC tender did not go the way many in the industry figured it would. In the run up to the tender, sources speculated the price would be $310-$315/mt CFR. The results, however, came in much lower.
Liven led the way with offers of 132,000-144,000 mt for Krishnapatnam at $308.65/mt CFR and $310/mt CFR for Mundra. Sources report from the IFA regional conference in Singapore that there was a lot of grumbling about the Liven prices. One trader was blunt when he commented that Liven left too much on the table.
The total amount of tons offered was significantly lower than the MMTC tender in September. In the last tender, MMTC bought close to 1.8 million mt. The total tonnage in firm offers in the STC tender is about 1.7 million tons.
Estimates were circulating before the tender that India still needed 1.5-2 million mt to close out the application season. Sources say the low Liven price will make it difficult for many of the other offering companies to match the price. This could leave India in the position of calling another tender soon.
The tender tally follows.
| Offering Company | Quantity (‘000) | Source | US$/mt CFR | ||