Daily Review of Compound Fertilizers: Weak market, winter storage not yet underway

Thread Content

The domestic compound fertilizer market is in a sluggish state; sales in the northern region are coming to an end, and the entire market is now in a phase of reduced activity. The overall operational rate of enterprises has declined; currently, the collective operational rate in the market is between 30% and 50%. An increasing number of enterprises are undergoing maintenance, and shipments in the raw material market have decreased significantly, which has led to a decline in transaction prices in varying degrees. In the later stage, the focus is on the winter storage market in the Northeast, but due to the declining market conditions, most industry insiders are not optimistic about this season’s winter storage. Currently, enterprises that are parked for maintenance have temporarily halted their raw material purchases; they are ignoring the situation and will not make any purchases, opting instead to observe the market in the short term. On the export side, orders for binary compound fertilizers are being processed; currently, the nitrogen and phosphorus contents are 20N:20P respectively. According to statistics from Zhongyu Information, as of now, domestic companies have handled approximately 500,000 tons of such orders, and there are still additional orders under negotiation, but all of those are for the month of October. No orders for November have been heard of yet. The prevailing ex-plant prices in Hubei region are: 45% (15N:15P:15K) at 2700–2750 yuan per ton, and 45% (15N:15P:15K) at 2850–2900 yuan per ton ； The mainstream ex-factory prices offered by Shandong-based enterprises are: 45% (15N:15P:15K) at 2,750–2,800 yuan per ton, and 45% (15N:15P:15K) at 2,950–3,000 yuan per ton; the high-end version remains at 3,300 yuan per ton. New market transactions at lower price points are available; in Jiangsu, chlorine-based products with a 45% content are being sold at around 2650 yuan per ton. In Hubei, low-end products with a 45% content (14N:16P:15K) are priced at 2750 yuan per ton.