Phosphate fertilizers prices, markets & analysis

Updated to Q2 2017

The phosphates market starts the second quarter with great expectations for demand in most regions. Market players expect buyers in India to return to the market in the coming weeks after fertilizer subsidies for the next year were announced. Demand has already emerged with some Indian buyers floating purchase tenders.

Chinese producers, on the other hand, will focus on the domestic market until the season is over, and then they are expected to concentrate on the export market. To date, diammonium phosphate (DAP) and monoammonium phosphate (MAP) operating rates have been reduced due to environmental restrictions.

West of Suez, demand is expected to pick up in the Americas during the quarter. More Moroccan and Russian cargoes are expected at Nola in the coming months and buying demand is likely to re-emerge for summer fill barges. The appetite for MAP is also due to increase in Brazil for the new crop season, with prices expected to edge downwards following a recent slide.