Spot Barge Prices
Spot Barge Prices
st/FOB U.S. Gulf
| Ammonia | 540 |
| Urea (g) | 340-395 |
| Urea (p) | 335-340 |
| DAP | 440-445 |
All Posts from July 21, 2014
ResponsibleAg – Management Brief
The ResponsibleAg board of directors has selected Tim Cansler as the organization’s first executive director. He will oversee the launch and ongoing administration of ResponsibleAg’s programs, training, and reporting activities, and assume his new role effective July 21, 2014.
“We are very excited to have someone of Tim’s stature join ResponsibleAg,” said J. Billy Pirkle, board chairman. “As the program gets underway, his background, expertise, and vision will help set a strong course for the future. ResponsibleAg is one of our industry’s highest priorities and already has the solid support of industry leaders and public officials. With Tim filling this critical role, we can soon begin working with ag retailers in the field to carry out our mission.”
Cansler is the founder and principal consultant for Cansler Consulting, based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2005, since its inception it has managed two nonprofit associations, with Cansler serving as executive director. He joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2002, where he worked with multiple agencies within USDA and advanced to serve as assistant to the undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. In that role, he was responsible for management for three federal agencies. Cansler spent 11 years with Farm Bureau working at the local, state, and national levels, including key public policy initiatives and political outreach.
ResponsibleAg is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 2014 to promote the safe storage and handling of fertilizers and to educate persons in the fertilizer distribution chain with respect to safety standards and government regulations. Utilizing third-party audits, ResponsibleAg will educate fertilizer storage and handling facilities to achieve and maintain compliance with federal environmental, health, safety, and security laws and regulations. ResponsibleAg works closely with the Asmark Institute, and maintains a training center and office in Owensboro, Ky.
Chinese firm to have majority stake in Indiana nitrogen plant
Chinese-owned Tierra Del Fuego Power & Chemical Co. Ltd. (TEQSA) will have a majority stake in the Ohio Valley Resources LLC (OVR) Fairfield, Ill., nitrogen plant planned for Spencer County, Ind., north of Rockport. TEQSA and OVR earlier signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of the plant, focusing on equity financing (GM Dec. 23, 2013).
OVR President and CEO Doug Wilson told Green Markets July 17 that TEQSA has committed to the project with an enforceable contract. He said OVR continues in negotiations with other potential equity partners, but that it will go forward with or without them. He declined to quantify TEQSA’s stake beyond it being a majority. He said debt financing for the project with be sourced out of both China and the U.S.
Wilson said negotiations continue regarding natural gas, water, off-take marketing, etc. He expects that OVR will soon exercise its options on the site.
As earlier reported, Sinopec Engineering Inc. (SEI), together with a U.S.-based global engineering firm, will execute the front-end engineering (FEED) and the detailed engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of the plant.
OVR hopes to keep the lid on the cost of the project close to the initial $952 million, though costs have shot up on competing projects.
OVR no longer quantifies product capacities, but initial projections were 2,420 st/d of anhydrous ammonia, 3,000 st/d of UAN, and 300/st/d of DEF (GM Dec. 10, 2012).
Foreign-owned seems to be the trend for new U.S. greenfield nitrogen plants. A competing nitrogen plant in Indiana, Midwest Fertilizer, is backed by Pakistan’s Fatima Group (GM April 14, p. 1). The Iowa Fertilizer Co., which is well under construction in Wever, Iowa, started out being owned by Egypt’s Orascom Construction Industries (OCI). OCI has since been integrated into OCI NV, based in The Netherlands. Others are proposed by Russia’s EuroChem, Germany’s BASF, and Norway’s Yara International ASA. Cronus Chemicals LLC, which hopes to build a plant in Illinois or Iowa, is reportedly owned by Swiss and Turkish investors. To date, North American companies CF Industries Holdings Inc., Koch Nitrogen Co., Agrium Inc., and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. are investing in brownfield development.
Sulfuric Acid
U.S. Gulf: Sulfuric acid imported to the Gulf of Mexico was called $60-$65/st CFR, unchanged from the previous reporting period.
Sulfur
Tampa: The domestic sulfur market remained amply supplied, sources said, despite scattered shortages in the Midwest caused by maintenance-related refinery shutdowns.
Supply was buoyed as well by BP’s Whiting, Ind. refinery, the expansion of which was on line and producing what was thought to be a massive amount of sulfur relative to the plant’s pre-expansion capacity.
Sulfur Cars at Destination, an indicator of length in the market, were “extremely high” on the East Coast. Coupled with phosphate production plant outages rumored to have been experienced at Aurora, N.C., and Plant City, Fla., overall market supply was firmly in the black.
Negotiations for the third-quarter price of molten sulfur delivered to Tampa wore on, and the smart money was on a late-July settlement. Sources claimed a handful of sulfur suppliers had already begun settling at an increase of $3/lt above the second-quarter price of $133/lt DEL, though a consensus settlement was not yet reported.
U.S. refinery operating rates spiked for the week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA), climbing to the highest point since June 23, 2006.
Refinery utilization was posted at 93.8 percent of capacity for the week ending July 11, an increase of 2.2 percent from the previous week. The rate was also better than the 92.8 percent turned in for the same week in 2013, and bested the five-year average of 91.4 percent.
U.S. Gulf: Sulfur exported from the Gulf was unchanged in a range of $140-$145/mt FOB.
Vancouver: Sources said international contract levels out of Vancouver had yet to be settled for the third quarter, though there was much debate as to what those final numbers might look like. Sources agreed, however, that the averaged contract price was likely to fall somewhere in a range of $150-$160/mt FOB.
Syncrude’s attempted return to sustained sulfur output hit another stumbling block, sources said. The 2,000 mt/y Alberta refinery was reportedly out of commission since July 6 due to problems related to hydrogen sulfide gas. Sources said Syncrude hoped to return to loading around July 21.
Alberta sulfur netbacks remained in a range of (-)$20-$80/mt for the time being. Sources raised the possibility, however, that the range’s low end could decline based on increased logistics costs from Syncrude’s continued downtime.
West Coast: Sources reported no new data points out of the California market, leaving the price steady in a range of $130-$140/mt FOB.
Benelux: The price of Benelux sulfur for the second quarter was $158-$172/mt. Sources anticipated the arrival of an updated third-quarter price shortly.
ADNOC: The ADNOC sulfur price for July was $170/mt, up $20/mt from the June price of $150/mt.
Potash
U.S. Gulf: Barges continued to be called tight and at $360-$365/st FOB.
Eastern Cornbelt: Potash pricing was firm at $390-$397/st FOB regional warehouses in the Eastern Cornbelt, with the low for red granular and the high for white granular tons.
Western Cornbelt: The granular potash market was quoted at a firm $390-$397/st FOB in the Western Cornbelt.
“Continued delayed shipments have people concerned for fall supply,” said one regional contact.
Northern Plains: Minnesota sources quoted the granular potash market at $385-$390/st FOB, with delivered tons in North Dakota pegged in the $390-$400/st range. Potash pricing FOB Saskatchewan mines remained at $345/st for standard, $350/st for granular, and $357/st for soluble sales to U.S. customers.
Northeast: The granular potash market was reported firmly in the $390/st FOB range out of regional warehouses in the Northeast, with rail-DEL tons pegged at the $400/st mark.
Eastern Canada: Potash pricing remained at a firm $470/mt FOB for limited tons out of Eastern Canada warehouses.
K-Mag was also in tight supply, with some warehouses out of product last week. The market remained at $535/mt FOB in Eastern Canada for the last tons sold, although one source said pricing levels will be at the $590/mt FOB level when warehouse inventories are replenished.
Sources reported a similar gap in sulfate of potash prices. The low end of the range was reported at the $769/mt FOB level “if any tons are available,” while others claimed the SOP market was currently sold out and would move to a firm $880/mt FOB when tons become available again.
Malaysia: There were unconfirmed reports that a standard cargo was sold into the country for as low as $295/mt CFR.
While some pounced upon this, saying it might be a bellwether for the next round of contracts, others noted that BPC – the Belarus Potash Company – had earlier announced that it had lined up business in Malaysia.
Sources called this an outlier, saying that other major suppliers are not likely to follow in contracts with China and India.
Phosphates
Central Florida: A series of cold fronts crawled across the nation last week, engulfing much of the eastern U.S. in heavy precipitation. Several areas experienced two inches or more of rain, including the Tennessee Valley, western North Carolina, the Carolina coasts, and most of Florida, according to the National Weather Service.
Producers reported steady demand out of the Central Florida market, with the so-called “monster” corn crop purportedly driving interest. Sources said logistics remain the biggest hurdle going forward, with phosphate sellers in the state likely to face snags in product repositioning as late summer material begins to flood the state’s overtaxed rail lines. Truck-loaded DAP prices were therefore expected to hold or increase their premium over rail-delivered product.
The price of DAP sold in the Central Florida market was quoted in a range of $435-$440/st FOB, unchanged from the previous week, with truck-loaded phosphates said to account for the majority of the range’s top end.
MAP supply was limited, with prices said to run $20/st FOB above DAP.
U.S. Gulf: Transactions on the NOLA barge market slowed to a crawl ahead of the Southwestern Fertilizer Conference. A smattering of barges were reported to have changed hands throughout the week, but overall activity was decidedly muted.
Despite the lull, sources described solidifying prices across the board, with DAP prices firming closer to the $445/st FOB mark that has been continually sought by producers over the past several weeks.
Market consensus had generally been reached in the mid-$440s/st FOB, though a handful of transactions were reported at varying levels between $440/st and $445/st FOB.
Due in part to skyrocketing international demand, the MAP premium continued to soar, and was reported to run $20-$30/st FOB above DAP.
Domestic DAP’s upward push was at least partially triggered by firming levels for imported material, sources said. Commonly offered as “open origin/open color” in the market for the last several weeks, most sources agreed that the lion’s share of product slated to arrive in the U.S. beginning in the second half of August will be of Chinese origin, though Mexican-sourced phosphates could arrive for NOLA discharge as well.
Despite reluctance by some to take a chance on product of questionable quality (“I don’t know of anyone willing to buy ‘open origin,’” said one source), a number of traders described success in offering the product at or around $435/st FOB for light-colored material, or closer to $440/st FOB for dark.
Indeed, $440/st FOB seemed to be the magic number, sources said. Anything offered below that would draw buyers, who would then turn around and attempt to resell the tons at as close to $440/st FOB as possible.
Industry players continued to express skepticism about the total amount of imported material bound for the U.S., estimated early in the season to be in the neighborhood of 1 million st. One source speculated that the final tally would lie closer to half that amount.
When and if Moroccan-sourced material would appear on the river was another mystery entirely. Many in the industry expected the North African-produced phosphates to have already hit the market, though the product’s continued absence, as well as any timeline for its reappearance, were ripe for speculation.
One source claimed Moroccan state-owned OCP had steadfastly refused to ship any phosphates to North America – beyond PotashCorp’s previously contracted tons – for any price below $550/st CFR, a level considerably above the current market.
Slow but steady demand from terminal customers also lent price support to the barge market, sources said. Terminal op
Ammonium Sulfate
Eastern Cornbelt: Granular ammonium sulfate remained at $290-$300/st FOB in the Eastern Cornbelt, depending on location, with the upper end of the range quoted out of inland warehouses in Ohio.
Ammonium thiosulfate was reported at $350-$360/st FOB in the Eastern Cornbelt.
Western Cornbelt: Granular ammonium sulfate remained at $275-$290/st FOB in the Western Cornbelt. As with most other products, however, supply was very tight, with some regional sources reporting no ammonium sulfate tons available for prompt shipment.
Ammonium thiosulfate was quoted at $320-$345/st FOB in the region, depending on location.
Northern Plains: Granular ammonium sulfate was quoted at $295-$305/st DEL in the Northern Plains, with the low reported in the Dakotas for summer fill offers from one regional supplier.
Ammonium thiosulfate remained at a nominal $330-$335/st FOB in the region for prompt pull, with delivered fill tons quoted at the $320/st level in North Dakota.
Northeast: Granular ammonium sulfate remained at $300-$305/st DEL in the Northeast, with that range also reported on an FOB basis out of the East Liverpool, Ohio, market.
Eastern Canada: Granular ammonium sulfate remained at $395-$415/mt FOB in Eastern Canada, depending on location.
No current pricing or demand was reported for ammonium thiosulfate in the region last week.
Ammonium Nitrate
U.S. Gulf: The market continues to be called $340/st FOB, with buyers hoping for $330-$335/st FOB and some sellers wanting $350/st FOB.
Western Cornbelt: The ammonium nitrate market in the Western Cornbelt was quoted at $380-$400/st for the last business, although inventories were nearly nonexistent.
Eastern Canada: The ammonium nitrate market was tagged at the $440-$470/mt FOB level for any available tons in Ontario last week.
Ameropa North America – Management Brief
Ameropa North America announced the passing of Mike Ward after a brave bout with cancer. During his 34 year career in the fertilizer industry he held senior management positions with TransNitro, Trammo, ICEC/Oxbow, and most recently nine years with Ameropa North America. “We will remember Mike as a smart trader, a trusted colleague, and a loving husband and father,” said Nick Adamchak, managing director, Ameropa North America. Ward is survived by his wife, Becky; son, Isaac; and daughter, Abigail.
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For additional details visit our Terms of Use.
All information has been obtained by Green Markets from sources believed to be reliable. However, because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by our sources, Green Markets or others, Green Markets does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information.
For additional details visit our Terms of Use.