U.S. Gulf: Granular barge prices moved up last week to $310-$322/st FOB, with the higher end of the range more common. Sources said if anyone wanted prompt barges, they would have to pay up as very little prompt material was available. That, however, could change as vessels start to arrive later this month and into August.
Some speculated that a significant amount of Chinese material may wind up in the U.S. in the near term. There were still reports last week of product in the low $300s/st FOB, with sources saying it was most likely Chinese material.
Prills edged down a bit, to $336-$340/st FOB.
Eastern Cornbelt: Granular urea pricing remained in the $360-$370/st FOB range in the Eastern Cornbelt.
Western Cornbelt: The granular urea market was quoted in the $350-$370/st FOB range in the Western Cornbelt, with product still dribbling for sidedressing and on rice in southern Missouri. The Tulsa, Okla., granular urea market was reported at $340-$350/st FOB last week.
California: Sources quoted the granular urea market in California at $450/st FOB on the low end.
Agrium’s granular urea postings in California dropped on July 1 to $460/st FOB West Sacramento; $470/st FOB Hanford and Richvale; $490/st truck-DEL in Central California; $500/st truck-DEL in Northern California; and $525/st truck-DEL in the Desert California counties of Imperial, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego. Those levels were down $15-$30/st from the company’s May 2 urea postings, depending on location.
Pacific Northwest: Granular urea pricing was down dramatically, with sources quoting the dealer market at $410-$430/st FOB and $425-$440/st DEL in the Pacific Northwest.
Agrium’s granular urea postings dropped on July 1 to $425/st FOB Pella, Idaho; $430/st FOB West Woodburn, Ore.; $435/st FOB Washington warehouses at Glade, Warden, Moses Lake, Plymouth, and Wilson; $430-$440/st DEL in Montana and Wyoming, depending on location; $440/st DEL in Washington, Oregon excluding Malheur County, northern Idaho, northern Nevada, the Klamath Basin, and northern and central Utah; and $445/st DEL in southern Utah. Those postings were down $135-$145/st from Agrium’s Feb. 1 urea postings in the region, depending on location.
Western Canada: The granular urea market as of July 1 had fallen to $480-$490/mt DEL in Manitoba, $490-$495/mt DEL in Saskatchewan, and $495-$510/mt DEL in Alberta and British Columbia.
Pakistan: The government ordered TCP to conduct a snap tender for 300,000 mt to close July 17. The tender documents say the material can be sourced from any country. Offers of less than 75,000 mt will be rejected.
Normally a TCP tender closes one month after the announcement. The Economic Coordination Committee, however, allowed an exemption in this case to hurry along the urea imports.
Sources expected to see another TCP tender after the confusing situation surrounding the June 5 tender for 50,000 mt. At that time, TCP rejected the Toepfer offer and made an award to Transammonia, then withdrew the award and made a new award to Toepfer, only to have Toepfer reject the new award. In the end, Transammonia got the award at $337/mt CFR.
As the dust was settling following that deal, sources said Pakistan would need another 100,000 mt soon. Sources report that TCP held off asking permission for another tender right away because India was in the market at the time. The additional call for tonnage could have helped fire up a depressingly soft urea market.
Now, TCP is getting out in between Indian tenders.
The last tender from India by STC showed a very low price of $303/mt CFR. While no one expects to see similar prices for the TCP tender, sources are betting that t