Tampa ammonia for May has been confirmed at $235/mt CFR, down $15/mt from the longstanding $250/mt CFR.

BayoTech Inc., Albuquerque, an on-site hydrogen production company, has announced a lease agreement for a hydrogen generator with Nutrien Ltd., Saskatoon. BayoTech said it will deploy an on-site hydrogen generator to one of Nutrien’s nitrogen fertilizer plants. Nutrien will operate the unit for supplemental hydrogen, while BayoTech will perform maintenance and 24/7 remote monitoring.

“BayoTech’s on-site, low-cost hydrogen is the first step in creating locally produced ammonia, eliminating transportation costs, and reducing carbon footprint,” said BayoTech CEO Mo Vargas. “This will enable Nutrien to have additional options as they continue to grow to meet rising global demand for food.”

The Tampa second-quarter sulfur contract has been concluded at $54/lt, up $18/lt from the first-quarter’s $36/lt. An increase was expected.

Nutrien Ltd., Saskatoon, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase 100 percent of the equity of the Brazil’s Tec Agro Group, a leading retailer in the state of Goiás, with close to 25 years of service to farmers and eight retail branches. Tec Agro also owns one of the largest branded soybean seed businesses in Brazil.

Tec Agro’s annual sales are approximately US$200 million and it has about 500 employees servicing thousands of farmers.

India’s MMTC today tendered for 1 million mt of granular or prill urea per year under bulk long-term contract for a minimum of three years and extendable for another two years by mutual agreement. However, bids are only invited from producers that have a minimum fertilizer grade urea capacity of 2 million mt/y. Quantities are to be shipped evenly over the contract period.

Bids are due April 22 and must remain valid through June 22, 2020.

The 2020 Southwestern Fertilizer Conference continues to be scheduled for Denver on July 19-23, according to an April 14 statement from SWFC. However, SWFC said it must be cautious to ensure the safety and health of all participants and with that in mind, it will plan to make a final decision on June 1.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced April 11 India’s lockdown due to COVID-19 will be extended. He did not say for how long. The initial lockdown was due to be lifted Tuesday, April 14. How the new orders will affect ports receiving imported goods such as fertilizer or the transport of those goods to local distributors still has to be worked out.

CHS Inc., St. Paul, reported net income of $125.4 million for the second-quarter ending Feb. 29, 2020, down from the year-ago $248.8 million. Revenues were up at $6.6 billion from the year-ago $6.5 billion. A drop in Energy segment pretax earnings were the major catalyst for the drop; they were down to $138.9 million from the year-ago $306.6 million. Ag income, while still in the loss column at $20.8 million, was improved over the year-ago loss of $62.4 million.

NOLA barge prices for DAP/MAP and urea were reported to be pushing higher in early week trading. DAP barges were reported to have hit as high as $290/st FOB, though others reported lower numbers. The week-ago high was $275/st FOB. Granular urea pricing was firming as well, with sources expecting new trades to top the week-ago highs of $270-$272/st FOB.

Compass Minerals said today that preliminary first-quarter sales volumes indicate strong demand, with North American fertilizer sales up 68 percent to 96,000 st over year-ago figures.  Plant Nutrition South America sales volumes totaled approximately 158,000 tons, including 68,000 tons of agriculture sales and 90,000 tons of chemical solutions sales, an increase of 31 percent and 10 percent, respectively from 2019 first-quarter results.