Tag: Urea

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media

Sulphur is becoming an increasingly vital crop nutrient, due to a combination of lower sulphur deposition from the atmosphere, the increasing prevalence of high-analysis fertilizers and higher cropping intensity.

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media

More than 745 delegates from 335 companies and 50 countries gathered at the Hilton Downtown, Miami, Florida, 21-23 March, for the Fertilizer Latino Americano 2022 conference. The event was jointly convened by Argus and CRU.

Liquid fertilizers are emerging as a high growth, multibillion dollar market. Their growing use is linked to trends such as no-till farming and the greater adoption of precision agriculture. Leading producers and products are highlighted.

Certain fertilizer prices are likely to remain above $1,000/t well into 2023, according to Moody’s.

Nitrogen+Syngas’s annual listing of new ammonia, urea, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants.

Spot ammonia prices made steep losses in west of Suez regions following the $200/t drop in the Tampa May contract price in late April, as supply and demand start to rebalance two months after the removal of Black Sea ammonia exports from the market. Yara has settled the Tampa contract price for May with Mosaic at $1,425/t c.fr, a $200/t drop from April.

Leaks in the high-pressure synthesis section of a urea plant may lead to catastrophic consequences. In 2017, building on an incident database set up by UreaKnowHow.com, AmmoniaKnowHow.com and UreaKnowHow.com introduced FIORDA, the Fertilizer Industry Operational Risk Database, a global open source risk register for ammonia and urea plants.

The ammonia market, already seeing record pricing in the wake of the winter’s gas price squeeze, is braced for even higher pricing in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The impact upon gas prices has been most marked, with rates of over $65/MMBtu seen in European forward pricing as the threat of a cessation of Russian gas exports loomed. This will undoubtedly lead to widespread idling of ammonia capacity in Europe.