All posts by webster@kennedyinfo.com

Ammonium Sulfate

Ammonium Sulfate, Eastern Cornbelt, Market Watch, Southeast, Southern Plains, Western Cornbelt

Eastern Cornbelt: Granular ammonium sulfate was steady at $375-$385/st FOB in the Eastern Cornbelt region. The ammonium thiosulfate market was pegged in the $360-$370/st FOB range.

Western Cornbelt: Granular ammonium sulfate was steady at $370-$385/st FOB in the Western Cornbelt. The ammonium thiosulfate market was quoted at $360-$380/st FOB in the region, indicating a slight increase from last report.

Southern Plains: Granular ammonium sulfate remained at $315-$355/st FOB Texas shipping points, with the low FOB Freeport and the upper end FOB Littlefield and Plainview. Effective March 1, however, a $10/st increase will take effect.

As a result, APF’s granular ammonium sulfate postings in Texas will move on March 1 to $325/st FOB Freeport, $335/st FOB Galena Park, $350/st FOB Fort Worth, and $365/st FOB Littlefield. Coarse postings from the company will firm to $315/st FOB Freeport, $325/st FOB Galena Park, $340/st FOB Fort Worth, and $355/st FOB Littlefield, while standard grade postings will move to $310/st FOB Freeport and $350/st FOB Littlefield. APF’s N-Pac Compacted reference price will move on March 1 to $340/st FOB Galena Park.

South Central: The granular ammonium sulfate market remained at $345-$355/st FOB regional terminals to the dealer, with the NOLA barge market quoted at around the $300/st FOB mark. Effective March 1, APF’s granular ammonium sulfate posting FOB Mermentau, La., is slated to firm $10/st to $355/st FOB.

Ammonium thiosulfate was reported in the $330-$335/st FOB range in the South Central region.

Southeast: Granular ammonium sulfate remained at $305-$315/st FOB and $320-$340/st DEL in the Southeast, depending on location, although sources talked of a possible pricing increase in the near term. A Carolina contact quoted delivered ammonium thiosulfate at the $330/st level last week.

Phosphates

Central Florida, Di-Ammonium Phosphate, Eastern Cornbelt, Market Watch, Mono-Ammonium Phosphate, Pakistan, Southeast, Southern Plains, U.S. Exports, U.S. Gulf, Western Cornbelt

Central Florida: With the Central Florida phosphate market pushing up daisies, the options for producers last week were either trans-Gulf shipments to the NOLA river system or export. Considering the NOLA phosphate market was close to $50/st below Central Florida, export was the obvious choice.

Last week, Mosaic decided to export 50,000 mt to China under its own name rather than through PhosChem. The transaction was pegged at $560/mt DEL to China and, after backing out freight of about $42/mt, the deal would amount to approximately $518/mt FOB, which equals about $470/st FOB. That price was less than the Central Florida price of $480/st FOB, but well above the NOLA DAP barge price by $35-$45/st FOB.

Any needs traders and dealers might have in the East were being met from the NOLA barge markets, which made more sense than buying from Central Florida. Otherwise, the areas of the country normally served by Central Florida were generally too wet to work. Everyone is hoping for an early spring this year, but forecasts are for a wetter-than-normal spring in the East.

On the positive side, Mosaic reached an agreement with the Sierra Club and other opponents of its Florida mine expansion. The company agreed to turn over more than 4,000 acres for a public park as part of the deal to get the injunction against the project lifted, in addition to avoiding additional wetlands. Another plus for producers was that the Tampa ammonia price for March was settled at $400/mt.

With a lack of prompt spot sales, the Central Florida DAP price continued last week at a flat $480/st FOB. Both Mosaic and CF Industries were posted at the $480/st FOB mark. However, a firm offer from a large buyer might be able to get a better deal.

MAP remained in short supply, and was listed at a $20/st premium to DAP by Mosaic in Central Florida, about the same difference as from traders.

PCS Sales was selling at prices comparable to the market.

U.S. Gulf: The best market for NOLA DAP barges for the past few weeks has been for the export market, which was bringing a $35-$45/st premium to NOLA. No one was all that interested in buying phosphate barges for domestic use anyway.

Mosaic decided to cut out the middle man last week. Instead of shipping cross-Gulf and not being able to sell product, it simply exported the material directly from Tampa to China. Others have taken similar measures, although the DAP barges were either bought at NOLA or on the river and transloaded for export.

Dealer warehouses were mostly full, and the spring season, which everybody says will be great, was still a couple of weeks away. Those who had to take NOLA DAP barges under contract were disposing of them on an export basis – if they could find a buyer.

That meant there were not a lot of DAP barges floating on the river system. Assuming there is an early spring, which all the warm weather was indicating, the river will get cleaned up very quickly. Then the big problem will be logistics, and what would follow would be higher prices. Maybe even much higher prices.

If the weather holds, the South should get started as early as this week, and the North in another two or three weeks. However, weather in the Eastern Cornbelt has been wet, and that trend was forecasted to continue.

Prices for corn futures were down again last week compared to the previous week, falling from $5.6475/bushel to $5.5825/bushel for December 2012. The corn price for December 2013 was $5.47/bushel, down from $5.5125/bushel the previous reporting period. Conversely, soybeans for November 2012 increased to $12.6775/bushel from $12.58/bushel the previous week, and beans for November 2013 moved up at $12.11/bushel from $12.00/bushel the previous week. Wheat for July 2012 went up to $6.5125 from $6.4825/bushel a week earlier, but wheat for July 20

Potash

Eastern Cornbelt, Market Watch, Potash Muriate, Southeast, Southern Plains, U.S. Gulf, Western Cornbelt

U.S. Gulf: Barge prices continued to be under pressure last week, with product called $490-$505/st FOB.

PotashCorp announced Feb. 22 that, consistent with its practice of matching supply with market demand, notice was given to employees that Rocanville and Lanigan will remain temporarily closed for up to an additional four weeks to March 31, 2012.

One observer suggested that lower prices, not curtailments, are what is needed to get potash to move. He said farmers look at the other fertilizer products, such as DAP, and then see a much higher price tag on potash. However, he said the problem is that too many buyers have product at high prices and they do not want to drop their prices.
Eastern Cornbelt: Sources quoted the potash market in the $535-$545/st FOB range in the Eastern Cornbelt region in late February.

Western Cornbelt: The potash market was quoted in the $530-$545/st range FOB regional warehouses, depending on grade and location.

Southern Plains: Potash in the Southern Plains was quoted at $530-$545/st FOB regional warehouses, depending on grade and location. The potash market FOB Carlsbad, N.M., was pegged in the $530-$540/st range, depending on grade.

South Central: Potash was tagged in the $535-$540/st FOB range in the South Central region in late February.

Southeast: Potash was quoted at $560/st FOB and $570-$580/st rail-DEL in the Southeast region last week.

Sulfur

Market Watch, Sulfur, Tampa

Tampa: Phosphate producers were continuing to build molten sulfur inventories because their own production was curtailed, mostly due to a lackluster domestic market.
Meanwhile, refinery operating capacity increased 1.5 percent from 84 percent to 85.5 percent, according to information from the U.S. DOE.

Sources said sweet crude was still the product of choice for refineries, which results in less sulfur extracted.

Market Notes

Market Watch, Middle East

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co. (SAFCO) has received an approval from the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu for its US$533.35 million urea expansion project. The project will increase total urea capacity from 2.6 million mt/y to 3.67 million mt/y at Jubail Industrial City, which is on the Persian Gulf Coast. The plant is expected to begin production in the second half of 2013.

Tessenderlo Kerley Inc. – Management Briefs

Management Briefs

Brian Stasiewicz has been named director of business development for Tessenderlo Kerley Inc. (TKI). He is a 30-year veteran in sales, marketing, and senior-level management, recently leaving a senior management position with Marsulex (now Chemtrade Logistics). He directly managed the strategic growth for Marsulex Refinery Services, a $200 million North American refinery service business. Stasiewicz will direct TKI’s initiatives to identify both domestic and global growth opportunities and acquisitions.

CVR board weighs Icahn offer

News, News Briefs, Southeast

Sugar Land, Texas — CVR Energy Inc. on Feb. 23 confirmed that on the same date Icahn Partners LP, an entity controlled by Carl Icahn, has formally commenced an unsolicited tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of CVR Energy for $30.00 per share in cash, plus a non-transferable contingent cash payment right. Icahn had previously announced on Feb. 16, 2012, that he intended to make such an offer (GM Feb. 20, p. 1). CVR says its board will review the offer and will make its recommendation to shareholders promptly. CVR urges shareholders to take no action until the Board has issued its recommendation.

Agrium plant to be offline for up to eight weeks

Alberta, News, News Briefs, Urea

Calgary — Agrium Inc.’s Carseland, Alberta, nitrogen plant is expected to be down for six to eight weeks for repairs, according to the company. It was down earlier this year for two to three weeks. This time, the complex went down Feb. 20 due to a problem with a high pressure heat exchanger in the urea unit. While this would have taken only about three weeks to repair, Agrium is opting to move forward a planned six-week Carseland turnaround for July-August to coincide with the current outage. As a result, the facility may be down for up to eight weeks. Agrium estimates some 90,000 mt of urea and/or ESN (Smart Nitrogen, an Advanced Technology product) will be impacted. Urea capacity at the facility is 680,000 mt/y and ESN is 219,000 mt/y. Agrium expects to have adequate supplies to meet its commitments during the spring season.