After a tense few weeks, imports of potash to the U.S. from Belarus are back on track, according to Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC), the joint venture that markets the potash of Belaruskali and Uralkali.
Concerns were raised in November (GM Nov. 19, p. 14), when the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control placed tougher sanctions on Belneftekhim, the country’s oil conglomerate, which is under the control of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. At the time, a Treasury spokesman told Green Markets that the strict sanctions were against companies doing business with Belneftekhim directly and that potash imports should not be impacted. While Belneftekhim is reported to operate the potash mine and has done business with Belaruskali, it does not own it, according to sources.
Since November, the situation between the governments of the U.S. and Belarus has heated up. In December, President Lukashenko threatened to expel the U.S. Ambassador after the U.S. suggested more sanctions against his country. He also threatened to end the use of the U.S. dollar in the country.
Due to the tension, a BPC panamax cargo loaded in Dec. 21 that was bound for the U.S. was sent elsewhere. Sources said with the current market situation this would have been no great hardship, as other buyers would have been more than happy to take in a wayward potash cargo. BPC told Green Markets Jan. 3 that they had just been given the green light to proceed with business as usual. As a result, a January cargo is expected to load with product to arrive in the U.S. in February.
Sources said that due to the high price for potash, U.S. buyers sent letters to the Treasury Department asking that the ban not include the imported potash.
So far this fertilizer year, U.S. potash imports from Belarus are off, at least for the period July-October 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. DOC shows 152,556 st being imported during that period, versus the year-ago 204,686 st. Total potash imports during the current July-October period are 3.42 million st, most of which is from Canada, up from the year-ago 2.9 million st.
To date, the main concerns appear to have been just with potash, and not nitrogen from PO Azot Grodno.