LAHORE, July 27: The supply of urea, a major nitrogenous fertiliser, during Kahrif is said to exceed demand as about 2.969 million tons of the nutrient will be available against an estimated demand of over 2.422 million tons creating a surplus of 539,000 tons.
A senior executive of a fertiliser producer told Dawn on Friday that with 700,000 tons of import commitments, about 905,000 tons of DAP would be available in the market during the season. The demand estimates are around 689,000 tons. Total nutrients off-take during June 2007 was about 422,000 tons, which surged by 17.3 per cent over June last year. Nitrogen and phosphate off-take increased by 9.3 per cent and 57.2 per cent, respectively, he said. Similarly potash off-take has also surged substantially. Urea off-take during June was 599,000 tons, showing an increase of 2.4 per cent over June last. DAP off-take reached a level of 145,000 tons, with an increase of 59.2 per cent over last June. The increase in off-take of phosphate and potash fertilisers during June was due to speculative buying made by dealers in view of an anticipated price hike due to cotton and rice crop applications,” the executive said.
He said the cumulative nutrients off-take for the first three months of Kharif (April-June) was 846,000 tons, witnessing an increase of 4.2 per cent over the same period last year. Urea off-take was 1.167 million tons (1.250 million tons last year), with a decrease of 6.6 per cent. DAP off-take was 283,000 tons (216,000 tons last year) showing a significant upward trend of 30.7 per cent over last Kharif,” he added.
He said on a year-on-year basis, the provisional figures show that total nutrients off-take during fiscal year 2006-07 was 3.672 million tons depicting a decrease of 3.5 per cent over 2005-06. The nitrogen off-take dipped by 9.4 per cent while phosphate and potash surged by 15.2 per cent and 59.5 per cent, respectively.
In product terms, urea off-take declined by 13.5 per cent while DAP increased by 16.5 per cent. The decrease in overall nutrients off-take was mainly due to decrease in nitrogen off-take as the share of nitrogen in total off-take is more than 70 per cent.
The subsidy on phosphatic and potash fertilisers in the mid-year altered the ratio in favour of phosphate, which also positively affected crop productivity, the executive said.
He said the production of all fertiliser products during June 2007 was about 441,000 tons. Out of that, the urea production was 339,000 tons, DAP 13,000 tons, CAN 32,000 tons, SSP 14,000 tons, nitrophos 33,000 tons and various grades of NPK were 10,000 tons.
The production of urea decreased due to maintenance in Engro plant while in case of DAP the production decreased due to FFBL plant shutdown for capacity enhancement.