April 15, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1429

KARACHI, April 14: Prices of diammonium phosphate (DAP) is likely to increase to Rs3,800 per bag in May-June and to Rs4,000 per bag in October-November 2008 due to rise in its international prices.

This was stated by the chief financial officer (CFO) Fauji Fertilisers Bin Qasim Ltd (FFBL) Syed Aamir Ahsan while responding to questions of newsmen at a press briefing here on Monday.

He said that FFBL would have to increase its prices in month or two due to rise in the international prices. “It will be difficult for us to sell DAP at the existing prices because its international price has increased by more than $800 per ton,” he added.

He said increase in DAP price would affect the sales but not the domestic demand.

He said his company would also request the government to raise the amount of subsidy on DAP to offset the impact of high prices. “We will suggest this to the government in the next week meeting in which prices and utilisation of DAP and urea will be reviewed,” he added.

He said that the local urea price was Rs490 per bag in 2007 for growers while its international price was Rs1,045 per bag.

He pointed out that FFBL had expanded DAP production capacity by 50pc and urea by 15pc.

He said that purpose of the news briefing was to inform about the completion of ammonia expansion project, DAP expansion project and Pak-Marco Phosphore (PMP) project in the country.

He said that PMP Morocco project was completed at a cost of $250 million in March 2008, with a production capacity of 375,000 tons of phosphoric acid per annum. The first consignment from the Morocco plant would arrive in the market next month. Phosphoric acid constitutes 90 per cent of the raw material in production of DAP.

Similarly, ammonia expansion project was undertaken at a cost of 50 million euros to enhance production capacity by 24 per cent to 1,570 tons per day and DAP expansion project enhanced production capacity by 50 per cent to 670,000 tons per annum at a cost of $33 million.—APP