Central Florida: Prices for phosphate on the river and on the export market have been rising for the past several weeks, and producers in Central Florida reacted by increasing their prices as well.
Mosaic pushed its price up by $10/st FOB and made new, prompt railcar sales, while CF Industries hiked its list price by $20/st FOB.
However, that was not welcome news for traders who normally buy from Central Florida. “They’ve killed it,” said one “They killed the market (by increasing prices).”
Not that long ago, the Central Florida DAP price was far above the NOLA DAP barge price. Late last week, Central Florida’s DAP price was trailing NOLA by as much as $25/st FOB, even after the price hikes.
The alternative for traders was to buy from river terminals, where prices were still more appealing, considering the difference in the cost of transportation.
The Central Florida DAP price range increased last week to $470-$480/st FOB from the previous week’s range of $460-$465/st FOB. CF Industries posted its list price at the $480/st FOB mark, and Mosaic increased its list price to $470/st FOB. MAP continued to sell at a $20/st premium to DAP in Central Florida, about the same difference as from traders, but MAP was virtually unavailable in Central Florida. PCS Sales, which produces MAP at its White Springs facility in North Florida, was selling at prices comparable to the market.
Phosphate producers settled on new prices for second-quarter molten sulfur delivered to Tampa. The price rose $8/lt, from $172/lt to $180/lt. Higher prices on the world market were the driving force in the settlement.
U.S. Gulf: In some areas of the Cornbelt, farmers were still busy preparing fields for spring planting in late April. As a result, those dealers and traders who still need to fill those needs were rushing to get what they could to meet the demand. One source said NPK applications in the area his company services were 97-98 percent complete.
Prices for most NOLA DAP barge transactions were collecting near the top of the previous week’s range, and there were rumors that some sales had gone well beyond that for barges in place. However, no actual trades above the previous week’s range were found, so that could not be verified. If that was the case, they were probably sold on the Ohio River, where prices have been higher. During the previous few weeks, a NOLA DAP barge upriver could bring a premium of $15/st FOB.
What was a little surprising were the prices being commanded for future sales in June through August, which were essentially the same as for prompt barges.
One source said the NOLA phosphate barge market was being pushed not so much by market fundamentals for the river system, but rather by export prices, which have risen by $50/mt or more during the past month. Projections were that the export market will continue to rise for another month or two.
Still, dealers do not want to have anything close to a large supply at the end of the spring season. There are expectations, however, that the fall season will come early this year, just as the spring season did, and that factor may be what is pushing the sale of NOLA phosphate barges for the summer by trading companies.
Most sources said they did not think there were a lot of phosphate barges available on the river, but there were no really good estimations of how many there actually are. Another interesting twist has been the elimination of the differential between DAP and MAP. Early in the season, MAP was bringing as much as $35/st FOB more than DAP. By last week, however, the difference in price had disappeared.
Meanwhile, terminal prices for DAP were escalating to adjust for the higher barge cost. By late last week, most terminal prices were running in the $515-$525/st FOB range, up