All Posts from August 7, 2013

TCP closes third tender

Breaking Industry News, Pakistan, Urea

The Trading Corp. of Pakistan closed its third tender in as many weeks. The most recent tender showed prices up a couple of dollars from the last tender.

Transammonia came in with the lowest offer of $311.71/mt CFR for 150,000 mt.

The previous two tenders each garnered 75,000 mt. This last tender finishes the amount called for by the government. The first tender in the series was awarded at $327.23/mt CFR and last week’s tender was at $309/90/mt CFR.

The latest price, while higher than the last deal, still provides a netback to China just under $290/mt FOB.

Before the tender closed, sources said even if all 150,000 mt needed by Pakistan were offered and awarded, the quantity is not enough to move the global urea market out of its doldrums.

See the Green Markets Web Edition Aug. 9 for more details on this tender.

CF reports 2Q earnings

Breaking Industry News

CF Industries Holdings Inc. reported net earnings attributable to common shareholders of $498.2 million ($8.38 per diluted share) on sales of $1.71 billion for the second quarter ending June 30, 2013 compared to the year-ago $606.3 million ($9.31 per share) on sales of $1.73 billion. Strong nitrogen volumes during the quarter of 3.61 million mt, partially offset lower urea and phosphate prices and phosphate volumes.

CF said it was still able to achieve the second highest EPS on record.

CF says the outlook for agriculture remains positive and it expects U.S. corn acreage of 92 million acres in 2014. While that would be down from 2013, CF noted that this is still a historically high figure. It also believes nitrogen inventories were significantly drawn down during the past season and farmers will need a significant amount of nitrogen starting with the fall season.

Potash prices drop $20/st

Breaking Industry News, Midwest

Reliable industry sources reported on Aug. 7 that Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. has dropped its potash postings $20/st across the board, moving to $400/st FOB and $410/st rail-DEL in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. The Mosaic Co. is also competing at those levels.

Industry sources said the PotashCorp pricing program requires orders to be booked by Friday, Aug. 9, after which the posted prices will move back up to $420/st FOB and $430/st rail-DEL.

Doyle downplays Uralkali actions

Breaking Industry News

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. President and CEO Bill Doyle today downplayed the recent Uralkali actions that have caused concern throughout the potash industry. Doyle, speaking in a virtual meeting on the PotashCorp website, said spats between Russian and Belarusian entities in the past were not uncommon. In those instances, they patched up their differences.

Asked about whether this was a temporary break-up, Doyle said he thought it would be “shorter rather than longer,” and that logic would prevail.

Doyle reiterated that there would be no change at Canpotex Ltd., the Saskatchewan producer export group, which just recently celebrated 40 years in business.

As for Uralkali’s assertion that prices may drop 25 percent, Doyle said no one producer can determine price, noting that supply and demand determines that.

Doyle called North America, PotashCorp’s largest market, and that Uralkali was not going to determine the price there. He said it might have influence in some places but not others. He noted that PotashCorp has extensive infrastructure throughout North America while Uralkali has no infrastructure and is only a minor player selling barges at the U.S. Gulf.

Asked about the prospect for new greenfield potash mines in light of the news, Doyle said they were not economical before the news.

Doyle said he believes nitrogen and phosphates have their own fundamentals and will not see an impact from new developments in the potash market.

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