U.S. Gulf: The granular barge range expanded in moderate trading last week. Transactions were quoted in a range of $303-$316/st FOB, shifting from $305-$315/st FOB in the last report. Sources blamed barge rates for hindering the market, with buyers holding off from purchases “until they absolutely have to,” a market player said.
Imported prills survived another week at $315-$330/mt FOB, though questions remained regarding the strength of the range’s upper end.
Eastern Cornbelt: The granular urea market had reportedly slipped to $345-$350/st FOB Cincinnati, Ohio, at the low end of the range. Sources continued to report the upper end of the regional range at $365-$370/st FOB on a spot basis, although there were no recent sales confirmed at that level.
Western Cornbelt: Sources continued to quote the granular urea market in the $350-$370/st FOB range in the Western Cornbelt, with the low confirmed in St. Louis, Mo., and the upper end in Iowa. One southern Missouri contact pegged the common dealer market at the $360/st FOB level last week.
Northern Plains: The granular urea market was quoted at $360-$365/st FOB the Twin Cities, up slightly from last report. North Dakota sources reported delivered urea in the $385-$390/st range for recent business, although sources said some suppliers were no longer offering fill tons at those levels last week.
“We are looking for it to continue up somewhat as the river closes, and positioning of tons will again become tighter on rail and trucking,” said one contact.
Northeast: Granular urea remained at $370-$385/st FOB in the Northeast, with the upper end FOB Fairless, Penn. Urea inventories remained out at Savannah, Ga., but sources said incoming tons were expected to be priced at the $370/st FOB mark.
Eastern Canada: The granular urea market had reportedly slipped to $495/mt FOB Ontario terminals, down some $45/mt from early October pricing levels.
Pakistan: The TCP tenders closed with a bit of drama. Dreymoor made a strong effort to take all four of the tenders. At first it looked as if the company would only get two of the four. Samsung nailed the third tender and a Hong Kong company new to the fertilizer trade, Dan Moody Investments, had the lowest price in the fourth tender.
In the end, however, Dreymoor took three of the tenders when the Dan Moody offer of $312.22/mt CFR was ruled ineligible.
Sources say the Dan Moody offer was bounced because it was not a pre-registered company with TCP for fertilizer trade. All TCP would say publically was that the offer was non-responsive because its paperwork did not meet all the terms of the tender documents.
Once the Hong Kong company was dropped, second-place Dreymoor won the award with an offer of $316.79/mt CFR. The Dreymoor offer was more in line with the trend shown in the previous tenders. While there was a steady decline in prices in each tender, no one could have expected to see a $5/mt drop. The final spread among the four tenders was just under $2/mt.
The final awards give Dreymoor 180,000 mt, and Samsung 105,000 mt. Loading has to be completed within two weeks.
Sources say the way Dreymoor went after the tenders indicated to them that Dreymoor had a number of tons already committed from producers in China, but no place to send them.
The low-ball number submitted by Dan Moody had some traders speculating that it might have been a stalking horse for another trading house to drive off other competitors. Others in the business said such speculation was more a product of imaginati