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Hype around winter fertilizers; stable prices for autumn fertilizers. Author/Source: China Fertilizer Network. Date: 2019-07-09. Clicks: 12. At the beginning of July, when the summer and autumn fertilizer markets truly transition into each other, the much-anticipated autumn fertilizer market begins to operate. In fact, companies started preparing for autumn fertilizer-related activities even as the summer fertilizer market was coming to an end. Although the current mainstream prices have not been finalized yet, companies in some regions such as Hubei and Anhui have announced new prices and promotional offers for autumn fertilizers through dealer meetings. In addition to the usual incentives such as interest discounts and rebates, there are also particularly attractive special products available. Initially, the companies tried to take the lead by collecting payments in advance, but the results were somewhat disappointing; it seems that all the attention was drawn away by the recent bidding process. So far, the winning bid prices for the Middle East and West Coast regions have been determined, and the exact quantities are also known to a large extent. However, there is still uncertainty before the bidding process is finalized. As for whether this will be beneficial for the domestic market, it actually has little impact on the autumn compound fertilizer market itself. First of all, the price level is not high. Among the current autumn fertilizer prices set by various companies, the prevailing outlet price for 45% chloro-high-nitrogen fertilizers (25-14-6) is around 2,150 yuan per ton; some manufacturers even offer additional discount policies. Even more surprising is the fact that there have been reports of \"unbelievably\" low prices for certain 45% sulfur-based general-purpose fertilizers (15-15-15). Simply in terms of the costs of raw materials for compound fertilizers, the current costs are slightly higher than those in the same period last year. However, the ex-factory prices have not reached higher levels. The main reason for this is that price wars are present everywhere these days; the era of competing on brand reputation seems to be over, and competing on prices, policies, and timing has become the primary rules for survival in the market. Secondly, demand is emerging. Generally speaking, July marks the beginning of the autumn fertilizer market, and both demand and supply should show some activity in this period. Recently, it has been reported that the advance purchases of autumn fertilizers by various agricultural supply companies are not particularly good; without policy-driven low-price purchases, the market situation could well become even worse. In fact, some dealers want to place orders by taking advantage of these favorable policies, but considering the initial stage of implementation and future developments, caution among them naturally increases. After the early days of July, as corporate marketing meetings are held on a large scale, the market situation for autumn fertilizers will become clearer, and it is expected that demand from downstream industries will also improve. Finally, the policies are flexible and diverse. At the beginning of each quarter, companies will try every means to \"take advantage\" of the relevant preferential policies in order to encourage their downstream partners to stock up actively. Unlike in previous years, the pre-payment policies for each season this year have become diverse and flexible. The reason for this, as mentioned above, is that timing is of paramount importance; it is usually the companies that act first that manage to stand out. Once a policy is attractive enough, it means that an advantage has been secured ； The second reason is that the purchasing power at the grassroots level is declining year by year; low grain prices and frequent natural disasters reduce farmers’ enthusiasm for preparing for farming, forcing enterprises to advocate for policy-based advance payments. In summary, the launch of autumn fertilizers coincides with the release of the pricing guidelines, and their impact on the domestic market will be more or less significant. It seems that autumn fertilizers will continue to exhibit the previous trend of delayed availability; it is hoped that the final outcome of these pricing guidelines will prove to be a positive factor for the development of the domestic market. (Feng Hongyang)