Tag: Demand

With demand for conventional fuels projected to peak and fall over the next decade, some refiners are looking to petrochemical production as a way of diversifying their product slate.

Commodity markets are often volatile, and sulphur and sulphuric acid can be more so than most, with much of their supply coming from involuntary production, and sulphur supply in particular often dependent on the timing of large scale oil and gas projects. Even so, this year’s price rises, in some cases tripling in just over a year, have been especially eye-catching.

The continuing spread of alkylation technology and the preference for the sulphuric acid route are leading to increased demand for acid in refineries.

We compare and contrast the 2020 financial performance of selected major fertilizer producers, following the publication of fourth-quarter results.

Maya Rehill of Anglo American Crop Nutrients discusses the latest crop trial findings for the polyhalite product POLY4 with the company’s regional agronomists. These highly positive trial results add to an already extensive evidence base on POLY4’s crop benefits.

Although the urea market has weathered the pandemic relatively well, a significant amount of new capacity is due to come on-stream in the next year or so, and could keep prices depressed unless more Chinese capacity closes.

While the covid pandemic has kept refinery run rates down in 2020, new refinery sulphur capacity will nevertheless form the bulk of new additions to sulphur production over the next few years. But delays to projects on both the supply and demand sides could tip a fairly balanced market in either direction.

Metal processing in Northeast Asia is the major source of sulphuric acid exports from the region, and the ramp up of Chinese copper smelter capacity is leading to increased acid availability.

There is an old adage that if you put two economists in a room, you will get three different opinions. As the world enters its second year of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, that certainly still seems to be the case among those grappling with predicting an increasingly uncertain world.

We profile a selection of the leading players in India’s large and dynamic domestic fertilizer industry.