Highlights
India is, by far, the largest world buyer of nitrogen fertilizer and they prefer urea. This past week India finally issued their first urea tender of 2025. It was expected to be issued from late January to the end of February. The nitrogen market-makers have been nervous and nitrogen retailers have been stressed the past few months waiting to see how much urea India would seek to buy and what price they would be willing to pay for it. That information is needed to price nitrogen fertilizers to the rest of the world. While the tender has not been filled with tons and prices yet, just the announcement brought a price decline of urea in the range of $7 to $12 per mt.
India’s tender is for 1.5 million mts with shipment spread into June. A two plus month delivery period is why the price of urea declined. Often, India wants the shipment period within 30 to 45 days.
Ammonium sulfate and Ammonium nitrate prices did not see much movement after the tender was issued. On the supply side, ammonium nitrate inventories are about 30% more than a year ago. Since the beginning of March, world MAP prices have risen by $25-30 per mt.