Karachi, March 29, 2022 (PPI-OT): Pakistan Fertilizer: Feb’22 urea offtakes rise 30%YoY

Official fertilizer offtake numbers were released by NFDC yesterday where Feb’22 urea offtake for the industry clocked in at 0.53mn MT, jumping by a whopping 30%YoY. Higher offtake during the month can be attributed to building inventory in anticipation of hike in urea prices amid implementation of WACOG mechanism. However, on monthly basis, the offtake came off by ~12%.

Company wise, EFERT’s urea sales depicted a decline of 19%MoM whereas Fatima’s urea sales came off by 25%MoM and FFC’s by 6%MoM. While on YoY basis, a robust jump was seen in volumetric sales across all the industry players.

DAP offtake contracted 37%MoM to 55k MT taking cumulative DAP offtake during 2MCY22 to 168k MT compared to 170k MT in during the same period last year, flattish YoY.

Country’s ending inventory currently stands ~69k MT which opens up the possibility of the country importing urea from the international market. International urea prices hovering around US$550/ton, easing off by ~35% since the mid of Feb’22 where supply side disruptions amid Russia – Ukraine war had taken international prices to multiple year high.