U.S. Gulf/Tampa: Tampa for January is $545/mt CFR, down some $80/mt from December’s $625/mt CFR. Sources are predicting another drop for February.
Anhydrous ammonia imports were off 18 percent in November, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, a statistic that may reflect fourth-quarter cuts in phosphate production by Mosaic. Imports were 404,981 st, down from the year-ago 492,841 st. July-November imports were off only 3 percent, however, to 2.38 million st from 2.46 million st.
February NYMEX natural gas closed Jan. 8 at $2.927/mmBtu, compared with Dec. 29’s $3.199/mmBtu. Despite it being the middle of winter, gas appears to be following oil prices downward.
Eastern Cornbelt: Sources reported minimal activity on the fertilizer front. “I believe winter is officially here and any fertilizer applications are now history until springtime,” said one regional contact.
The anhydrous ammonia market remained at $610-$625/st FOB in Illinois for prompt or prepay, depending on location. In Indiana and Ohio, the ammonia market was pegged at $625-$645/st FOB, with the upper end FOB Lima, Ohio, for spring prepay.
Western Cornbelt: The ammonia market was steady at $585-$610/st FOB for spring prepay tons out of most regional terminals in the Western Cornbelt. With minimal prompt demand to report, the low end of the regional market remained at the $570/st level FOB Nebraska terminals for prompt pull.
Northern Plains: Sources pegged the anhydrous ammonia market at $615-$625/st FOB in the Northern Plains, with the low FOB the Twin Cities and the upper end for spring prepay FOB Velva and Grand Forks, N.D. Delivered ammonia tons in the North Dakota market were quoted in the $595-$615/st range, with the low for fill and the upper end for limited spring prepay offerings.
Dakota Gasification confirmed that its Beulah, N.D., plant was now running at full capacity for anhydrous and ammonium sulfate. The facility experienced an unplanned outage in November that kept production offline for several weeks (GM Dec. 1, 2014).
Eastern Canada: The ammonia market was pegged at $830-$835/mt FOB Courtright, Ont., for spring prepay tons shipped from March through June.