CF Industries Holdings Inc. alerted customers late on April 4 that it will not be able to load anhydrous ammonia out of its Aurora, Neb., terminal until further notice. The news followed other announcements from producers of suspended loading at nitrogen facilities. On April 3, Koch Nitrogen sent out an alert that it has suspended UAN truck loading at Beatrice, Neb., until further notice. Earlier in the week, CF notified customers that its Woodward, Okla., terminal would not be loading UAN-28 or UAN-32 until further notice.
LSB Industries also reported earlier in the week that UAN production at its Pryor, Okla., nitrogen plant was still offline due to maintenance that is still underway on the facility’s urea plant. Ammonia production at Pryor resumed on March 22 after the plant was shut down March 15 for unplanned maintenance.
In addition to operational issues, industry sources reported a frenzied and early application pace that has left nitrogen inventories stretched thin, and prices marching upward. Several contacts said at midweek that the reluctance of farmers and dealers to commit earlier to spring tons has left the distribution system vulnerable to outages, and the earlier-than-normal demand has tapped out supply. Sources reported difficulty at midweek in sourcing UAN, ammonium nitrate, and urea out of many Midwest terminals.
In addition to the pricing increase reported earlier by Green Markets, another slate of new postings was announced later in the day on April 4. Effective on that date, Agrium’s UAN-32 postings moved to $410/st ($12.81/unit) FOB Sacramento, Calif., and $440/st ($13.75/unit) truck-DEL in California.
In the Pacific Northwest region, Agrium’s UAN-32 postings moved on April 4 to $430/st ($13.44/unit) rail-DEL in Washington, northern Idaho, and Oregon excluding Malheur County; $430/st ($13.44/unit) truck-DEL in northwestern Oregon; $435/st ($13.59/unit) rail-DEL and $440/st ($13.75/unit) truck-DEL in Nevada, Utah, southern Idaho, and Oregon’s Malheur County; and $440/st ($13.75/unit) DEL in Montana and northern Wyoming.