September 4, 2012
Pakistan''s 3.377 million tonnes urea available against demand
Leaving an inventory of 0.159 million tonnes during on-going Kharif season, about 3.377 million tonnes of Pakistan''s urea including 0.425 million tonnes of imported supplies would be available against 3.214 million tonnes estimated demand.
The availability would also include 0.8 million tonnes of inventory and 2.152 million tonnes of local production.
Issuing details about the situation during Kharif-2012, the National Fertiliser Development Centre (NFDC) in its latest Summary said about 0.726 million tonnes of DAP would also be available in the market. The demand estimates are around 0.552 million tonnes, leaving a closing balance of 0.173 million tonnes. Thus supply demand situation in respect of both urea and DAP will remain satisfactory during Kharif 2012.
Regarding fertiliser off-take during June 2012, it said total nutrients off-take during the month was about 0.592 million tonnes which increased by 96.9% over June last year. Nitrogen and phosphate off-take increased by 107.2% and 37.7% respectively whereas potash off-take decreased by 16.9%.
The Summary further revealed that urea off-take during June 2012 was 1.029 million tonnes, showing an increase of 109.1% over June 2011. The increase in ureaoff-take was mainly due to reduction in its company price by local fertiliser industry from PKR1,790 (US$19) to PKR1,650 (US$17) per 50 kilogrammes bag of urea. The DAP off-take was 96,000 tonnes which increased by 40.6% over corresponding month of 2011.
The Summary said production of all fertiliser products during June 2012 was about 0.514 million tonnes. Dispatches of imported fertilisers from port were 0.195 million tonnes, comprising of 0.132 million tonnes of urea and 63,000 tonnes of DAP.
During June 2012, prices of all the fertilisers except TSP decreased. During June 2012 prices of Urea Sona and Urea tara decreased by 1.9% and 2.5% over May 2012 respectively. Prices of DAP decreased slightly (1.3%) while prices of CAN, SSP (P) and SSP (G) decreased by 1.0%, 4.4% and 3.1% respectively. However, price of TSP increased by 2.6% over May, 2012.
The Summary said the cumulative nutrients off-take for first three months of Kharif 2012 (April-June 2012) was 1.02 million tonnes, witnessing an increase of 17.4% over the same timeframe of last Kharif 2011.