U.S. Gulf: Compared with recent weeks, the urea barge market remained quiet. New granular trades for prompt were called $675-$690/st FOB, with claims that if you really wanted a barge you could pull $670/st FOB. This is in line with expectations that prices will significantly erode for forward barges. Nothing new was reported on prills.
Eastern Cornbelt: Most sources continued to quote the granular urea market at $740-$750/st FOB regional terminals to the dealer, but some Illinois sources said deals could be had at slightly lower numbers on a spot basis for limited volumes. An Indiana contact pegged the market solidly at the $750/st FOB mark in his location last week.
Western Cornbelt: Sources pegged the granular urea market at $730-$750/st FOB Western Cornbelt terminals last week, with most touting the market at the $740/st FOB level or higher. While some sources maintained that the Catoosa, Okla., urea market was still firm at $725-$735/st FOB, other said the market there had slipped to $715-$720/st FOB in the wake of softer NOLA barge prices.
Northern Plains: Urea remained in tight supply in the Northern Plains, with one Minnesota source describing inventories as “a few loads available here and there.” The market was quoted at $720-$750/st FOB in the region, with delivered tons pegged in the $765-$770/st range in North Dakota. Those prices reflected a slight drop from last report.
Great Lakes: Wisconsin sources pegged the granular urea market in a broad range at $740-$770/st FOB, depending on location. Michigan contacts tagged the dealer market at $750-$775/st FOB, with the low at Burns Harbor, Ind., and the upper end FOB Webberville, Mich.
Northeast: Pennsylvania sources tagged the granular urea market in the $704-$710/st FOB range last week, depending on location. Rains came to much of the Northeast region last week, dropping 1-5 inches across New England, up to two inches in western Pennsylvania, and 1-2 inches on Maryland’s eastern shore. The moisture was badly needed in Maryland and Delaware, where both states experienced their driest January-April period on record.
India: Sources report STC was not too happy with the results of the May 8 tender.
The lowest offer came from Titanium at $535/mt CFR, about $150/mt higher than what IPL paid just a few weeks ago. The average price of all the offers comes in $30/mt higher over the final IPL price.
The offer from Titanium put STC in a box. Had their offer been closer to the rest of the pack – in the $550s/mt CFR – STC could have purchased up to 1 million mt. Now, with Titanium at $535/mt CFR and the next lowest offer at $552/mt CFR from Swiss Singapore, STC may have to try to convince the Indian government that it will need permission to run a two-tier award.
But first it is trying to get others to match the Titanium offer. Area traders are skeptical it will work.
Results of the tender follow on pg. 6-7.
Sabic sent its regrets. Sources confirm that the turnarounds from the Saudi producer, combined with its contracts, left the company with no tons to offer. The offers from the Arab producers came as no surprise. In the run-up to the tender, many in the industry expected to see prices of $555/mt FOB. And indeed, the three producer
companies that did offer set their prices at $555-$556/mt FOB. Traders carrying Middle East tons backed up that level with offers around $557/mt FOB.
The closing of the tender was pushed back from the original issue date of May 4. In the original tender call, STC said it would not consider offers containing Iranian tons. As the May 4 deadline approached, the company saw a run-up in prices from Yuzhnyy to the Arab Gulf