KARACHI: Fertiliser manufacturers have asked the government to extend the urea export deadline to December, which will help them dispose of their surplus production.

“The government can comfortably allow the export of 0.5-0.6 million tonnes of surplus urea. At present, the industry has an inventory of about 1.5m tonnes,” said Engro Fertiliser CEO Ruhail Mohammad.

Urea demand is expected to remain at the last year’s level of 5.5-5.6m tonnes. The government allowed local manufacturers to export 300,000 tonnes of urea by the end of April. At the end of the first quarter of 2017, only Engro Fertiliser had exported urea to Eastern Africa at an estimated freight-on-board (FOB) price of $230-240 per tonne.

Local producers are looking at export opportunities in various regions, including East Africa, Afghanistan and India. International urea prices are expected to remain under pressure after a short-lived relief at the beginning of the year due to increased demand from North America ahead of the corn season in the region, according to a Taurus Securities report.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2017