Kemira names compound prices

By Roger Chesher

KEMIRA Agriculture published its NPK compound price lists on Monday (02 October), giving the lead to Hydro and Terra who will undoubtedly follow suit very quickly.

Hydro products, imported from Norway, are similar in manufacture to those of Kemira, being “complex” compound fertilisers, where typically all the nutrients are found in stated proportions in each granule.

One should therefore expect the pricing to be very close or at parity.

The new Terra range is composed of blended fertilisers and, while the quality of blends varies across the market, it is perfectly possible to manufacture blends to a very high-quality specification.

Terras familiar “blue bags” remain at the quality end of the spectrum and their prices will also be not too far removed from those of Kemira.

As speculated last week, the farm delivered price of a 25.5.5 compound matches the monthly nitrogen price up to and including December.

But the leap into January is not so great, pitching at 126/t, with anticipated spring prices of 129/t, 132/t and 134/t for February, March and April respectively.

The manufacturers, in posting this structure and insisting on cash terms, seek to encourage the merchant or farmer to take early delivery and place fertiliser in store.

Whether the differential between October and spring is great enough to do this remains to be seen.

At the farm gate these higher prices will be seen as a blow, but the manufacturers efforts to get back into profit this year have been hit by higher gas prices, increased phosphate costs and currency changes, all of which have absorbed any potential profit from higher prices.

In 1999, Hydro alone was losing 3.98 million per week in its global fertiliser operations.

Some relief will be provided by the domestic blenders however, whose prices, when they appear in spring, should be some 5-7/t below the majors.

IRELAND