With soaring sulfur prices, can the compound fertilizer industry withstand it?
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The price of sulfur is currently 3,000 yuan per ton, up by about three times compared to the beginning of the year, which has led to a significant rise in the price of sulfuric acid. With such high prices for sulfuric acid, how can compound fertilizers be produced? It seems that the prices of fertilizers haven’t increased dramatically; so how do they manage to cover their costs?
In the compound fertilizer industry, if monoammonium phosphate is used as the source of phosphorus in such fertilizers, price increases may not become apparent until several months later. This is because some companies that produce monoammonium phosphate use pyrite to produce acid; those companies that produce triple-element compound fertilizers using sulfur to make acid or wet-process phosphoric acid are the most affected. These companies consume over 900 KG of acid per ton of compound fertilizer, and these costs are incorporated into the price of the compound fertilizers, making it difficult for them to absorb such expenses.
Where there is an increase, there is also a decrease; large companies all have inventory, and it’s no problem to use that inventory for half a year – at present, this has not yet affected the downstream sector
Let me correct that: the current price of sulfur is around 3,800 yuan, not 3,000 yuan. Furthermore, it’s not that compound fertilizers haven’t seen price increases – rather, their prices have risen along with other factors affecting costs. For example, the 48-chloride-based compound fertilizer produced by Anhui Liuguo now costs 2,780 yuan, the highest price ever recorded.
Now the price of sulfur has dropped again; it’s available at around 1500
Let me correct that… The highest price we’ve ever charged was around 5,000. Prices were higher at the beginning of the year; recently they seem to have dropped a bit… There’s also a price of over 3,000! It’s still much higher than before. In the past, we would just discard the sulfur.
Don’t worry about sulfur affecting the price of compound fertilizers; there are ways to increase the phosphorus content. Nitrogen costs are falling; look at potassium instead.
No way. I remember that sulfur used to cost up to 800 dollars, but now its price has dropped to 100 dollars. Our factory purchased it at the highest prices; now that the price of sulfur has fallen, the price of sulfur-based acid we produce is less than 400 yuan – it’s heartbreaking~~~
Friend on the 8th floor, take however much you want from the $120; you can earn $20. How about that?
The sulfur from our factory is currently being sold at 3,500 yuan per unit.