Sulfur Price Up and DAP Market Sluggish

By CnAgri2013-12-19 09:32:33 Print International sulfur market saw significant growth recently. According to statistics, sulfur market has been prone to rebound since October and currently domestic average price rises to about RMB960/MT with monthly growth rate of 15.2%.  

Sulfur market is promoted by both port stocks and refineries. Some devices are overhauled in domestic refineries, so the operating rate declines. Continuous consumption of enterprises’ stocks supports price to increase in a row. Low level of stocks in ports supports traders to hold price and promote market trend. Besides, continuous price increase in international market also brought favors to domestic market.

As for the later market, though sulfur price keeps high, it faces great obstruction to further increase with weak demand from downstream. Plus that traders face more financial pressure in the year-end, it is more possible that sulfur market shall stabilize with consolidation. The other factor that restrained sulfur price from further increase is that DAP market lacks strength to go up, because firstly,  manufacturers delivered goods with low price before, which was hard to adjust; secondly,  railway carriage is tensed by year-end and enterprises are suppressed by stocks with obstructed delivery; thirdly, with consideration that raising DAP price would promote sulfur price, which is unfavorable for enterprises. In overall, demand is still crucial for DAP market trend. Under the background of surplus capacity and weak demand, it is difficult for DAP to rebound and thereby weaken supports to sulfur price.

From “China Fertilizer Market Weekly Report”