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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Global warming seen in fertiliser prices by Prabha Jagannathan

Global warming seen in fertiliser prices by Prabha Jagannathan

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published Published on Aug 11, 2010   modified Modified on Aug 11, 2010


Global fertiliser prices have started to hot up once again, in anticipation of tight supplies in 2010-11 and some significant mergers and acquisitions, which could increase the import bill for India and also make key soil nutrients expensive.

In just the latter half of July, prices of key phosphatic fertilisers, urea, DAP, phosphate and potash have shot up in a marked manner.

Between July 16 and July 29, phosphate prices alone shot up by $22 to $533/tonne, while the import price of DAP (di ammonium phosphates) shot up by $20/tonne.

Urea import price, in roughly the same period, also moved up by $10 to $280/tonne from $270 in the first half of June.

That should be concern to India, the world’s second largest fertiliser importer after China, which ran a fertiliser subsidy bill of around Rs one lakh crore just two years ago when world prices peaked.

“Developments in the world’s topmost fertiliser importing nations are especially acting as a gradual trigger for fertiliser supplies in 2010-11,” a sectoral monitor said.

In end June, that was spelt out by Potash of Saskatchewan which projected that 20% lower grain output in Russia on account of drought and food grain production worries peaking in India in the coming season thanks to an erratic monsoon and abysmal storage.

Sustaining fertiliser prices on an upward trajectory this week is hard news that Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, who already owns a majority share in London-listed potash major UralKali, is poised to take majority share in Silvinit, Russia’s biggest potash producer and merge the two, making the company second to only Canada’s Potash Corp.

On Tuesday, another giant, OAO PhosAgro, the world’s second largest potash company, shot off a letter to the Russian government proposing a merger with Silvinit. All of this has led to heavy speculation that the new company could control global supply and dictate high global prices for potash and other fertilisers.

“India is interested in stable global fertiliser prices. We are watching the developments,” Iffco CMD US Awasthi told ET.

Current fertiliser prices should be immense interest to Iffco. In 2009, IPL (in which Iffco owns 34% stake) managed to bust the stranglehold of an established global potash cartel on prices when it clinched a key deal with IPC, UK (potash major Silvinit’s marketing arm), for 3 mt (of a total annual import of 5mt) potash at $460/tonne, spelling a saving of Rs 5,000 crore from the fertiliser subsidy bill of about Rs 55,000 crore for the 2009-10 year.

Potash production globally is pegged at about 60mt against a demand of 55mt, requiring operating rates of 90%, a level that analysts say historically means a “tight market and rising fertiliser prices.”

The importance of this potassium-rich mineral cannot be overstated, analysts maintain. When mixed with phosphate and nitrogen, potash makes it possible for fertilisers to boost crop yields by as much as 60%.


The Economic Times, 12 August, 2010, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/Global-warming-seen-in-fertiliser-prices/articleshow/6296454.cms


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