Unseasonably slack in the fertiliser market
By Mike Stickland
THE fertiliser market is very slack at a time when, in some parts of the country, one would expect it to be busy.
The PK market is surprisingly slow and many bigger buyers are only buying by the lorry-load. Two of the biggest blenders have just put their prices up but, with the fragmented market and price flexibility, it is very hard to put an accurate price for farm delivery. There is a degree of shopping around, and quite a lot of enquiries which are not resulting in orders.
The domestic ammonium nitrate producers have all announced price increases with £92-95/t the target. In some cases and in some places the delivered farm price for a lorry-load has crept over the £90/t mark, but for any bigger order the price is likely to still be between £85 and £89. Imported ammonium nitrate is on offer for about £78-82/t, though a large amount of the product on offer is a carry over from spring cargoes.
Prilled urea has been sold in bags in some areas as low as £92/t while in other areas a good price is £99. Granular urea at the moment is offered about £10/t dearer than prilled, but in the higher priced areas, there are few takers.