U.S. Gulf: New trades were put in the $252-$260/st ($7.88-$8.13/unit) FOB range, starting out the week at the lower end of the range and working its way up. By week’s end, with sources citing the urea run-up, UAN quotes had gone up to $270-$280/st ($8.44-$8.75/unit) FOB for the next round of business, though nothing in that range was reported last week.
While UAN imports were off 22 percent for July-November, they saw a huge surge in November itself, with the monthly total running up 157 percent. November imports came in at 313,139 st, up from the year-ago 121,796 st. Meanwhile, July-November was 1.02 million st, down from the year-ago 1.31 million st.
Sources speculated that the November surge might have been to overly compensate for Helm’s outage in Trinidad. That plant is now back in operation.
In the meantime, price ideas for East Coast imports had moved from $290/mt to $300/mt CFR.
Eastern Cornbelt: The UAN-28 market was pegged at $263-$265/st ($9.39-$9.46/unit) FOB Cincinnati for prompt and $270/st ($9.64/unit) FOB for spring prepay, with the East Liverpool market quoted at $269/st ($9.61/unit) FOB for prompt and $280/st ($10.00/unit) for prepay. Sources also quoted the Burns Harbor UAN-28 prompt market at the $280/st ($10.00/unit) FOB level last week.
On Jan. 9, CF came out with forward UAN pricing for spring delivery, with the market FOB Illinois terminals posted at $284.20-$291.20/st ($10.15-$10.40/unit) for UAN-28; $304.50-$312/st ($10.15-$10.40/unit) for UAN-30; and $324.80-$332.80/st ($10.15-$10.40/unit) for UAN-32.
Western Cornbelt: UAN-32 pricing was up in the Western Cornbelt, with sources quoting the market at $310-$330/st ($9.69-$10.31/unit) FOB regional terminals. The upper end was reported in Iowa on Jan. 9 for spring prepay tons.
Northern Plains: UAN-28 pricing had firmed in the Northern Plains. The low end of the regional market was reported at $280/st ($10.00/unit) FOB the Twin Cities, with the upper end pegged at $305/st ($10.89/unit) for prompt and $315/st ($11.25/unit) for prepay FOB Jamestown, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn. Delivered prepay tons from Canada were pegged at the $300/st ($10.71/unit) in parts of North Dakota last week.
Great Lakes: Michigan sources tagged the prompt UAN-28 market in a broad range at $250-$280/st ($8.93-$10.00/unit) FOB, with the low out of Courtright and the upper end FOB Bay City, Mich. Wisconsin sources quoted the UAN-32 market at $320/st ($10.00/unit) DEL. Spring prepay offers were roughly $5/st higher than the prompt market.
Northeast: UAN pricing was up in the Northeast, with sources quoting the Baltimore market at $267.50/st for UAN-30 ($8.92/unit) and $285/st for UAN-32 ($8.91/unit). UAN-32 pricing out of terminals in upstate New York had reportedly firmed to $336/st ($10.50/unit) FOB, up some $15-$25/st from last report.