U.S. Gulf: UAN barge prices appear to be on the move, with most seeing them as going up last week. Sources put the market within the $235-$242/st ($7.34-$7.56/unit) FOB range, with new quotes as high as $245-$250/st ($7.66-$7.81/unit) FOB.
East Coast imports were also reported to be moving up, with the latest quotes at $265-$270/mt CFR.
Eastern Cornbelt: UAN-28 continued to be quoted at $250-$255/st ($8.93-$9.11/unit) FOB Cincinnati for prompt or prepay tons, with the upper end of the regional range reported at the $260/st ($9.29/unit) FOB level. Illinois sources tagged the UAN-32 market at $280-$290/st ($8.75-$9.06/unit) FOB, depending on location.
Western Cornbelt: UAN-32 pricing remained in a broad range in the Western Cornbelt, with sources quoting the dealer market at $280-$300/st ($8.75-$9.38/unit) FOB in the region.
California: UAN was down slightly in California, with the Stockton market quoted at $300-$312/st ($9.38-$9.75/unit) FOB, down roughly $8-$10/st from last report. Dealer postings remained as high as $345/st ($10.78/unit) FOB desert locations, but sources reported “no big movement at this time.”
Central Valley sources quoted rail-delivered UAN-32 at the $315/st ($9.84/unit) level in early December.
Pacific Northwest: UAN-32 was steady at $315-$330/st ($9.84-$10.31/unit) DEL in the Pacific Northwest.
Western Canada: UAN-28 remained at $339-$342/mt ($12.11-$12.21/unit) DEL in Manitoba, $342-$345/mt ($12.21-$12.32/unit) DEL in Saskatchewan, and $345-$354/mt ($12.32-$12.64/unit) DEL in Alberta.
Helm Fertilizer Corp., Tampa, and Millard Maritime®, a Gulf Coast port and cargo solution provider, have jointly announced a partnership based on importing Helm products to the Millard Maritime facility in Theodore, Ala., from Trinidad and other ports around the globe. This expands upon a business relationship that began in 2011. The new agreement takes effect upon completion of an automated bulk storage warehouse. The parties say it will allow Millard to meet Helm’s specific needs to increase its marketing presence and expand sales opportunities of dry fertilizers.
Currently, Millard unloads the imported fertilizer from the Helm vessel, stores it in shore-based tanks, and then loads to rail, truck, or barge for distribution to Helm’s customers throughout the Eastern U.S. This existing business will expand to include additional dry fertilizer commodities by 2015.
“We view the relationship between Helm Fertilizer Corp. and Millard Maritime as collaborative and growing, with each partner introducing new opportunities to review. Our initial joint activities have been very successful, and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership,” said Michael Peyton, Helm vice president, domestic division.
Millard Maritime, owned by refrigerated warehousing and distribution solutions company Millard Refrigerated Services, Omaha, operates a port near Mobile, Ala., that features a 1,600 ft. wharf, export and import capabilities, and bulk, liquid, and break-bulk loading/unloading with easy rail, interstate, and barge access. Millard Maritime works with companies trading a wide variety of commodities and finished goods to transport their products to market in the U.S. and around the world.
“Helm Fertilizer Corp. is drawing on our ability to customize solutions for each application and ensure that value is delivered alongside the products being distributed. We will continue to work with Helm to develop new services that drive out costs while ensuring customer demands are met,” said Tim Smith, Millard Refrigerated Services senior vice president of sales and marketing.
Millard Refrigerated Services, founded in 1963, remains family owned and operated, serving the U.S. food industry through a network of 33 regional temperature-controlled warehouse and distribution facilities. In addition to cold storage warehousing and transportation, Millard provides clients with a wide variety of other value-added services, logistics support, and import/export assistance.
Helm Fertilizer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Helm AG that distributes and markets fertilizers throughout the Americas. Helm AG is a Hamburg, Germany-based family owned company dating back over 110 years. Helm is one of the world’s major independent chemicals marketing enterprises, with more than 90 branches and sales offices in over 30 countries.
Koch Fertilizer, Wichita, said Dec. 5 that in an effort to better reflect the scope of its business and vision for the future, it will change its name to Koch Ag and Energy Solutions, with the newly renamed entity serving as a holding company for Koch Fertilizer, Koch Energy Services, and Koch Methanol. The change will take place early in 2014.
Steve Packebush, who has been president of Koch Fertilizer LLC since 2003, will be president of the holding company. Along with the name change and new holding company, Chase Koch will become president of Koch Fertilizer, and Kurt Kolbeck will become president of Koch Energy Services.
“Since acquiring Farmland’s fertilizer plants and terminals in 2003, we’ve grown and globalized this business and expanded beyond fertilizer,” said Packebush. “This name change and reorganization will better position us to continue to innovate and pursue even more strategic growth opportunities within the agriculture and energy sectors.”
Koch Fertilizer recently announced plans for its largest initiative ever with the proposed expansion of existing ammonia production and construction of a new urea plant at Koch Nitrogen Co. LLC’s Enid, Okla., facility.
Koch Fertilizer and its subsidiaries own or have interests in nitrogen fertilizer plants in the U.S., Canada, and Trinidad and Tobago. It has a supply, storage, and distribution system that includes terminals in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, France, and the United Kingdom. Koch Fertilizer also offers a portfolio of products such as the Agrotain®, Nexen®, and Nitamin® brands of high performance fertilizers, and has the capability to market and distribute more than 13 million tons of fertilizer products annually.
In October, Koch Energy Services announced it had entered into an agreement with affiliates of Energy Capital Partners LLC to acquire a natural gas combined cycle electric power generating facility in Odessa, Texas. The electric power generating facility, located in the Permian Basin region of west Texas, has a capacity of 1,055 megawatts. The facility provides electric power to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) system, a power market serving 23 million Texas customers and representing 85 percent of the state’s electric load. The transaction is subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals and could close late in the fourth quarter of 2013 or early in the first quarter of 2014.
Koch Industries Inc. is one of the largest private companies in America, with annual revenues of about $115 billion. With a presence in nearly 60 countries, Koch companies employ about 60,000 people worldwide. In 2012, Koch companies employed more than 47,000 people in the U.S.
U.S. Gulf: The market was said to be in a range of $35-$45/st DEL by vessel, but was expected to rise if the Tampa molten price moves up in the first quarter.
Tampa: Negotiations for first-quarter sulfur prices will not begin for another month, but both sides were beginning to stake out their positions last week.
Higher world prices pushed by traders paying more for sulfur at China, along with weather-related disruptions to rail shipments from Canada, were working in favor of suppliers, who seemed to think they should get as much as $25/lt more than the current $75/lt for molten sulfur delivered to Tampa.
The phosphate industry, by contrast, was pointing to lackluster sales of its products, layoffs by PotashCorp, and lower prices for its products as reasons to hold the line. They also noted that PotashCorp was shutting down one of its two processing plants at White Springs, and sulfur that would have gone there will wind up on the market.
In addition, oil refineries were running at high capacity rates, which would put more sulfur into the system. Last week, refinery operating capacity rates increased 3 percent, to 92.4 percent from the previous week’s 89.4 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. A year earlier, refineries were operating at 90.6 percent, while the five-year average was 86.86 percent.
The fourth-quarter price for molten sulfur delivered to Tampa remained at $75/lt.
U.S. Gulf: The price for Gulf prill rose to $70-$80/mt FOB, compared with the previous range of $60-$70/mt FOB.
Vancouver: Higher prices in China were beginning to have an impact at Vancouver, where prices were up last week. The spot price range last week was pegged at $70-$75/mt FOB, up from the previous week’s $50-$70/mt FOB.
Regardless of what happens with the negotiations for Tampa molten sulfur prices for the first quarter, a source said the extremely low price of sulfur from parts of Alberta will likely rise next quarter. The lowest price found at Alberta was -$65/mt FOB.
West Coast: As the price rises at Vancouver, so do prices on the West Coast, which were said to be in the range of $73-$78/mt FOB.
Benelux: The fourth-quarter price range for Benelux was $108-$122/mt.
ADNOC: The November ADNOC price was $80/mt FOB, and $73/mt FOB at Qatar.
U.S. Gulf: Surprise – potash was perhaps the one NOLA product not going up last week. Barges were called $335/st FOB, with some suggesting that business could be done as low as $330/st FOB.
Eastern Cornbelt: Potash remained at $375-$387/st FOB, depending on grade and location, with the upper end quoted for white granular potash. Sources reported no new business, however, and little confidence in those levels. “Don’t offer less unless you want to buy,” said one.
Western Cornbelt: Potash pricing in the Western Cornbelt was quoted in the $365-$375/st FOB range in early December, reflecting another drop from last report. The low end was reported for red granular potash in the Missouri market on a spot basis, with white granular tons pegged at the $372/st FOB level at that location.
California: Muriate of potash pricing remained flat at $500-$510/st DEL and $494-$502/st FOB in California, with the low end reported after discounts.
Crystalline potassium nitrate was steady at $950/st FOB for bulk and $1,020/st FOB for bags.
Although fall demand has ebbed, sources said sulfate of potash (SOP) supplies remained tight in the state. SOP pricing had edged up slightly as a result, with sources quoting the market at $670-$690/st FOB in California.
Pacific Northwest: Potash was quoted at $455-$465/st FOB regional warehouses and $460-$465/st rail-DEL in the Pacific Northwest. The potash market FOB Utah mines had reportedly slipped to $385-$390/st for tons shipped into the Pacific Northwest.
K-Mag remained at $461-$481/st FOB in the region.
Western Canada: The Western Canada potash market remained flat at $460/mt FOB Saskatchewan mines to Canadian customers. Dealer pricing out of Western Canada warehouse locations was unchanged at $468-$491/mt FOB, depending on location and supplier.
Central Florida: The corn harvest was nearly complete in the Northeast by early December, although a pre-Thanksgiving storm and another blast of wet and cold last week created some delays.
The Southeast continued to be relatively dry, although Virginia and western North Carolina saw a reduction in the amount of area classified as abnormally dry by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The Central Florida phosphate market continued to be suppressed by high transportation costs in comparison to the NOLA barge market. As a result, few if any prompt spot sales occurred. However, prices did retreat about $15-$20/st FOB.
The industry was reacting to PotashCorp’s decision to shutter one of two phosphate processing plants at White Springs, Fla., and lay off about 350 employees at that location. The company makes MAP at that facility. In addition, it will cut about 85 workers at its Aurora, N.C., operation, where DAP is the primary product. Lower prices and fewer sales were cited as reasons for the decision.
The Central Florida DAP price range fell to a flat $345/st FOB last week, down from $360-$370/st FOB the previous week. MAP prices continued to bring a premium of about $20/st FOB over DAP in the Central Florida market.
U.S. Gulf: A record corn harvest and the third-largest soybean crop on record will push up earnings for growers this year by more than 15 percent, according to USDA. The corn harvest should reach 13.989 billion bushels, while a 3.258 billion bushel soybean harvest was estimated by USDA.
Harvesting in the Midwest was virtually finished by late last week, although sources said a few pockets remained. Weather was a problem for much of the Midwest last week, as another major storm system swept across the country. In Florida, by contrast, temperatures were well above normal.
Although crop prices have fallen during the past month, they were still quite healthy.
The Thursday snapshot of the futures market showed corn, soybean, and wheat prices on the rise, albeit moderately so. Corn was $4.335/bushel for March 2014, while trading of December 2014 corn contracts clocked in at $4.625/bushel, up slightly from the previous week’s $4.5375/bushel.
The January 2014 price of soybeans was $13.28/bushel, up just slightly from the previous week’s $13.275/bushel. The soybean price for March 2014 was $13.1175/bushel, while soybeans for November 2014 were posted at $11.63/bushel, up from the previous week’s $11.5475/bushel.
Wheat for March 2014 was reported at $6.9525/bushel, with the May 2014 price coming in at $6.95/bushel. The July 2015 price of wheat was $6.9875/bushel, up only a fraction from the previous week’s price of $6.985/bushel.
Water levels on the Mississippi River were on the rise as a result of last week’s storms, and the Blytheville, Ark., dock was expected to reopen by Dec. 20, a source said.
MAP prices edged above DAP last week, perhaps in part because of PotashCorp’s announcement that it will shut down one of its two Florida MAP processing plants. In addition, much of the OCP product that had flooded the market during the past month was no longer available.
The NOLA DAP barge price range last week came in at $325-$340/st FOB based on actual trades, compared to the previous week’s range $325-$330/st FOB. The lowest priced barge of $325/st FOB was resold at $335/st FOB. Offers for January were running about $15/st FOB higher than the current range.
NOLA MAP barges were thinly traded last week, but were generally higher than DAP by $5-$15/st. Offers reportedly ran as high as $360/st FOB, although there were no takers found at that price level.
Eastern Cornbelt: Phosphate pricing was down significantly in the Eastern Cornbelt. The DAP market was quoted as low as $365-$375/st F
Eastern Cornbelt: Granular ammonium sulfate was unchanged at $270-$280/st FOB in the Eastern Cornbelt. Ammonium thiosulfate remained at $335-$340/st FOB.
Western Cornbelt: Granular ammonium sulfate was steady at $255-$270/st FOB in the Western Cornbelt. Ammonium thiosulfate was reported in the $315-$345/st FOB range in the region last week.
California: Ammonium sulfate was reported at $260-$290/st FOB in California, depending on grade, location, and supplier. Sources pegged the standard market at $260-$275/st FOB Lathrop
Ammonium thiosulfate remained at $300/st FOB Stockton.
Pacific Northwest: Ammonium sulfate remained at $215-$255/st FOB and $225-$265/st DEL in the Pacific Northwest, with the low for standard grade and the upper end for premium granular.
Ammonium thiosulfate was unchanged at $310-$330/st FOB in the region, depending on location and supplier.
Western Canada: Granular ammonium sulfate was unchanged at $380-$385/mt DEL in Western Canada.
U.S. Gulf: With an uptick in urea and UAN barges, even ammonium nitrate was showing some strength after drifting down the past few weeks. Sources are now calling the market $265-$270/st FOB, with some quoting $275/st FOB.
Western Cornbelt: Ammonium nitrate pricing remained at $325/st FOB in the Western Cornbelt.
California: No market was reported for ammonium nitrate in California.
CAN-17 pricing in California was steady at $305/st FOB Stockton, $308-$318/st FOB Helm, and up to $328/st FOB in desert locations.
AN-20 remained at $300/st DEL and $290-$295/st FOB in California.
Pacific Northwest: No market was reported for ammonium nitrate in the Pacific Northwest.
CAN-17 remained at a nominal $338/st FOB in the region.
The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) held its annual meeting Dec. 3-5 in Miami. One topic of note was that the fertilizer industry is moving toward its own self-regulation as the country awaits President Barack Obama’s Executive Orders to federal agencies in response to the April 2013 West, Texas, tragedy.
ARA, along with The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), will hold a workshop in Dallas Dec. 12-13 to discuss possible solutions. TFI President Chris Jahn told conference attendees that in September the TFI board agreed to put $100,000 toward a program, but that it must be cost effective and run on a consensus basis with broad general support, and be as quick as possible.
ARA President Daren Coppock told Green Markets that a resolution could reach both the full TFI and ARA boards in February.
Jahn told conference attendees that the EO results will start coming in in January, and that the media will again begin to focus on West. Jahn said polling shows that the fertilizer industries’ reputation is now lower than that of the oil and gas industry. He said 70 percent of the public supports more regulations on fertilizer, while 88 percent support a voluntary industry effort.
Industry panelists on the topic warned that if the industry does not act, it risks rolling the dice and having regulators act for them. Panel moderator Dr. Dave Downey of Purdue University warned that regulars may pick the worst possible circumstances and build regulations around those. “This is not going away,” said Downey. “The world is never going to be simple again.” He also said it not just an ARA issue, but an industry issue. The agencies want industry to take steps; if we don’t, they will, said Downey.
“The benefits of responsible ag outweigh the costs,” said Johnny Council, outgoing ARA Chairman and president and CEO of The Lyman/Tremont Group. “It takes an industry to make it happen. People here are not the issue,” he continued, “but we know that there are those out there that are a detriment to our industry.”
Council said the public perception is of a corrupt, capitalistic industry, manipulating agriculture for profit. He said they do not understand nutrient enhancements or ag achievements, adding that the organic and local food movements have almost become a religion.
Billy Pirkle, Agrium Inc.’s Crop Production Services senior director, citing an often-used term in 2013, said “there are no outliers in this room,” the reference often given to West Fertilizer. However, to get rid of the outliers, Pirkle said a registration process is needed, as well as a transparent verification program. He also said all the federal regulations need to be put into a single repository for ag retailers. He added that back in 2011 the industry was already working on a code for ammonium nitrate and anhydrous ammonia. Looking back, Pirkle said the high point of the industry was likely right after World War II, when the industry was credited with helping to feed the troops.
Another fear is that ag retailers will lose certain permitting exemptions, which would add an entire new level of regulation, paperwork, and expense, said Pirkle, who added that inherently safer technology (IST) is another possibility is the industry does not act.
Yara North America President Bart Pescio spent the early part of his career in Europe and had firsthand knowledge of the restrictions that were put on ammonium nitrate and ammonia on that continent. The industry fears such could also come to the U.S. He and Pirkle both talked about how the U.S. is the only major nation in the world that does not have such an industry-sponsored initiative.
Much more was discussed at the ARA meeting, with Allan Gray, Purdue University’s Land O’Lakes Chair of Agribusiness, giving a retail outlook to 2025, te
Disclaimer of Warranty
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.
