Category: Outlook & Reviews

The prospect of a drastic expansion in potassium sulphate production has been linked to a plethora of projects in Australia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. These have sought to take advantage of market tightness and high price premiums. Yet investor interest in supposedly promising projects has waned over the last few years. In this insight article, CRU’s Alexander Chreky explains the reasons behind the high project failure rate, as well as highlighting some limited successes.

Market snapshot, 15th August 2024 Urea: A stand-off between buyers and sellers has left prices fairly flat in recent weeks with little liquidity. India's latest import tender was, however, finally confirmed for 29th August closing. The tender’s long shipment window allows NFL to secure tonnages through to end-October and took the market by surprise. This is a bearish signal that should increase dramatically the volume offered to NFL. The tender could exclude volumes from China with supply instead focused on the Middle East and Russia.

The International Fertilizer Association’s annual Global Markets Conference is an in-depth event for those tracking the market. This year’s two-day gathering in London in July lived up to its billing as a meeting of curious minds (Fertilizer International 521, p4).

We profile Ulexandes, a fast-expanding supplier of agricultural boron products with production plants in both Bolivia and Peru.

Tessenderlo Kerley International (TKInt) is a major global supplier of water-soluble sulphate of potash plant nutrition and the leading producer of thiosulphate-based fertilizers. In an exclusive interview, we speak to Nicolas White the company’s Portfolio & Knowledge Director, about recent strategic developments. These include major investments in new production, transshipment and storage capacity, production offtake agreements, and product sales and marketing rights.

The International Fertilizer Association (IFA) recently published its annual medium-term outlook for the fertilizer market. This followed presentations by Laura Cross and Armelle Gruère of IFA’s Market Intelligence Service at the Association’s Annual Conference in Singapore in late May.

The US fertilizer industry, ranked fourth globally in terms of total production capacity, has grown and developed alongside an increasingly sophisticated domestic agricultural sector. The Biden administration has earmarked $900 million for investment in fertilizer assets to boost domestic production capacity and reduce input costs to farmers.

Landus has invested $15 million in a 75,000 square foot fertilizer manufacturing and distribution plant in Boone, Iowa. The project was backed by a $5 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s Fertilizer Production Expansion Program (FPEP).

The last year has seen the first shipments of low-carbon ‘green’ fertilizers from companies such as Yara, Fertiberia, OCI and Sabic Agri-Nutrients. Partnerships with food manufacturers and retailers are helping to grow this emerging market and drive demand.

Fertiberia’s Puertollano green hydrogen plant was officially inaugurated by Spain’s King Felipe VI in May 2023. The 20MW capacity unit will produce up to 3,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen annually.