NOLA granular urea dropped to as low as $275/st FOB in trading late last week. While this information was received prior to Green Markets deadline, it was erroneously not included in the Oct. 14 edition. Green Markets is correcting its Oct. 14 range to $275-$290/st FOB from the previously reported $283-$290/st FOB.
The State Trading Corp. of India called a urea tender to close Oct. 17. The new tender was needed after MMTC only took about 600,000 mt in its tender earlier this month. Even with the MMTC purchases, India still needs about 2 million mt before the end of the application season in February 2014. Shipment must start before November 30.
The shipping deadline gives STC the opportunity to pick up Chinese material stored in bonded warehouses or headed for the warehouses before the end of October. The export duty on urea goes up to 110 percent beginning Nov. 1. Sources say, however, any material either already in the warehouses by that date can be sold at the current lower rate. One source noted that even material not yet in the warehouse but committed to an offshore buyer by the end of the month could also qualify for the lower rate.
The other target for the STC tender is to get more Iranian urea. Between the two producing countries – Iran and China – urea prices have dropped dramatically in the past 10 months. Indian buyers have moved to take advantage of this decline.
