Fertilizer Market Saw No Improvement This Week

By CnAgri2013-05-31 11:17:50 Print Urea: though with low operating rate of urea manufacturers, market was still oversupply with limited demand. Urea price declined in Shandong, Hebei, Anhui and Henan this week and market demand for urea also slumped into the nadir with end of spring planting. With depressed international economy and slow down of domestic economy growth rate, price for coal, raw materials for urea production, also declined dramatically, so did production cost of urea manufacturers, which expanded decreasing space for urea price. It is predicted the sale dilemma of urea shall not be improved in short terms. (Figure 1)
 
ABC: average price of ABC kept at RMB700/MT with no big fluctuation. (Figure 2)
 
DAP: DAP market kept basically stable this week. Though export started on schedule, international market was not that satisfactory with not only limited demand but also low price declining to USD524.10/MT. Though export is extended by one month this year, exports shall see no great increase generally influenced by gloomy international situation. Prices for raw materials like sulfur and phosphate rock continued declining currently, production cost of DAP manufacturers also declined. But DAP market shall continue with the gloomy trend later influenced by depressed fertilizer market. (Figure 3)
 
NPK: NPK market remained sluggish this week with poor production and sale and both quotation by manufacturers and operating rate continued declining. Demand for corn fertilizer in Central Plains region and demand for NPK of rice, fruit and vegetable in SC are great. But as prices for raw materials continued declining, NPK price was inevitable to decrease, which caused manufacturers lack of confidence in later NPK market and of positivity of procurement. According to manufacturers, both production and sale of summer fertilizer performed not well this year and even in peak season. Storage of summer fertilizer shall be finished by mid-June. It is predicted NPK price shall not decline significantly. (Figure 4)
 
MOP: domestic MOP market saw no improvement this week and the price went on decreasing. Dealers lacked confidence in market and phenomenon of underselling and price inversion increased. Stocks of MOP manufacturers were also great and ex-factory price declined. MOP import almost created a new high record with 950000MT, which also brought pressure to domestic market. There is almost no favorable news for MOP, so it is predicted the gloomy trend shall continue.  (Figure 5)
 
SOP: SOP market saw no great change this week. In general, SOP market performed better than MOP, but under the gloomy fertilizer environment, it is still inevitable for the price to go down though SOP industry can still make profit easily. (Figure 6)



From “China Fertilizer Market Weekly Report”