In a rush to secure necessary urea, MMTC issued awards totaling 1.7 million mt. The buyer is just waiting for acceptance from the providers.

Sources said MMTC accepted the PIC price of $280/mt FOB. Almost immediately after, Fertiglobe also accepted that price. The agreement means MMTC will take at least 220,000 mt on an FOB basis. Sources are now saying MMTC could take 1.3 million – 1.7 million mt in the tender that closed Aug. 26. See the Aug. 28 issue of Green Markets for more details.

PCI Nitrogen, Pasadena, Texas, and Martin Midstream Partners LP have both confirmed that their facilities in the path of Hurricane Laura have been secured with the employees evacuated. PCI took action Tuesday, Aug. 25, with Martin saying it initiated its Hurricane Preparedness Plan on Aug. 24 for all terminals, as well as its Neches ATS plant, which are in the path of the hurricane.

Sulfuric acid producer Eco Services told Green Markets that its facility is not in the direct path of the hurricane at this time and it will continue to run at normal rates unless conditions get much worse than forecast.

The Tampa ammonia contract for September has moved up to $212/mt CFR, from August’s $205/mt CFR.

In other news, the Yara – BASF joint venture ammonia plant at Freeport, Texas, will continue to operate at full rates. OCI has taken down its Beaumont ammonia and methanol plant as Hurricane Laura approaches.

Prices came off slightly as 2.3 million mt were offered in the MMTC tender that closed Aug. 26. The East Coast low was $283.52/mt CFR against $290/mt CFR from the RCF tender earlier this month. The West Coast low was $288.89/mt CFR, representing an 11 cent drop from the previous tender. The lowest FOB price came from PIC with 30,000 mt at $280/mt. Fertiglobe offered 100,000 mt at $281/mt FOB for Egyptian tons and 90,000 mt at $284/mt FOB from the Arab Gulf, representing prices not far off from their offer in the last tender.

In preparation for Hurricane Laura, American Plant Food Corp. confirmed on Aug. 25 that it has halted shipping for an estimated 48 hours at its three Houston-area facilities at Greens Point, Freeport, and Galena Park. While Hurricane Laura appears to be following approximately the same path as Hurricane Harvey did in 2017, observers believe it may have a quick passage over the area. Harvey, however, lingered, causing much flooding, a factor which impacted shipping and contributed to the OCI Beaumont ammonia plant, among others being offline, for 17 days.

OCI Beaumont has confirmed that it is shutting down its ammonia and methanol plants pre-emptively ahead of Hurricane Laura. The hurricane appears to be following a similar path to that of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. OCI said the Beaumont ammonia plant was offline 17 days, with methanol down only three due to Harvey.

Junior sulfate of potash developer Crystal Peak Minerals Inc., Toronto, said Aug. 21 that its cash balance could drop below the $500,000 minimum cash balance covenant. It said it is working with a financial advisor to pursue any and all financing alternatives, up to and including the sale of the company or its assets. It said a breach of the covenant could result in EMR Capital foreclosing on its security. Crystal Peak has been developing the Sevier Playa project in Utah.

Junior sulfate of potash developer SOPerior Fertilizer Corp., Toronto, said Aug. 24 that it has entered into a letter of intent (LOI) with an arm’s length party to form a joint venture to develop its Blawn Mountain Mining Lease in Utah. Initially, the two jv parties will have an equal 50-50 interest, but the counter-party will have the right to earn additional ownership interests as it successfully achieves a series of milestones.

Yara International ASA, Oslo, said earlier today it has now received the $1 billion sale proceeds from the transaction to sell its entire 25 percent stake in Qatar Fertiliser Co. (QAFCO) to Qatar Petroleum, Doha. The fertilizer group yesterday confirmed it had completed the transaction.

Yara will now initiate a share buy-back program for up to 8,551,880 of its shares outstanding on the open market. Including the proportional redemption of shares owned by the Norwegian state, the total buyback and redemption will amount to approximately 5.0 percent (13,406,611 shares) of shares outstanding. The share purchases will be carried out between Sept. 1, 2020 and March 23, 2021.