The MMTC urea tender closed Feb. 27 with about 1.2 million mt offered by 15 companies.
The lowest FOB offer came from Fertrade at $264.50/mt FOB for a delivered price of $274.50/mt CFR. The lowest delivered price came from Canopus and Transagri at $271.90/mt CFR. The FOB rates for the two companies were at $267.42/mt FOB and $271.92/mt CFR respectively.
Estimates in the run-up to the tender had landed prices in the low-$260s/mt CFR, based on Iranian cargo. Some traders had argued for the upper $260s/mt CFR and even low $270s/mt CFR, saying the Iranians would be pushing for higher prices.
Two producers – Fertil and Muntajat – offered tons at $265/mt FOB and $268/mt FOB, respectively. These prices would have a landed price about $280/mt CFR.
Industry sources said India needs about 1 million mt to adequately kick off the upcoming application season. The current reserves on hand are pegged at only 500,000 mt. Another tender could be called soon, one trader said earlier, if MTMC does not take at least 500,000 mt in this tender.
LSB Industries Inc., Oklahoma City, reported fourth-quarter income of $914,000 ($0.26 per diluted share) on sales of $88.9 million, up from the year-ago loss of $21.5 million ($1.06 per share) and $85.4 million, respectively.
LSB Industries Inc. said better pricing, increased production at its El Dorado plant and improved demand for mining products in the fourth-quarter, was offset somewhat by downtime at the Pryor plant. So far in 2018, LSB reports higher prices for most of its products.
LSB posted a full-year loss of $29.2 million ($2.18 per share) on sales of $427.5 million, compared to 2016’s net income of $112.2 million ($2.54 per share) and $374.6 million, respectively. Much of the year-ago income came from discontinued operations.
Intrepid Potash Inc., Denver, reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.4 million ($0.01 per diluted share) on sales of $33.3 million versus the year-ago loss of $16.6 million ($0.22 per share) and $42.2 million, respectively.
“We continue to execute on our transition and diversification strategies, driving improvements in our year-over-year results,” said Bob Jornayvaz, Intrepid’s executive chairman, president, and CEO. “Potash segment margins benefited from our lower-cost solar-only production profile, and improvements in the domestic Trio® market led to the first announced price increase since early 2015.” He also said International Trio® sales volumes are trending upward and the company’s water and by-product sales were in line with expectations for the quarter.
“Our decision to build potash inventory going into 2018 should allow us to capitalize on the recent price increase,” he added. “Price increases for both potash and Trio® are building on the improved market conditions from the second half of 2017 and we expect these solid fundamentals to carry through the first half of 2018.”
The full-year loss was $22.9 million ($0.20 per share) on sales of $157.6 million down from 2016’s $66.6 million ($0.88 per share) and $210.9 million, respectively.
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