I am pleased to introduce the fertiMetrics website – a site which I hope will become useful and bring topics of interest.
The aim is to stay current and to address issues which engages debate.
I have been in the fertilizer business since August 1st 1983. I have lived and worked in 11 different countries on most continents thus I have formed an extensive network. During this journey I have seen Urea prices in the USD 50s FOB Arab Gulf; DAP around USD 115 FOB Tampa – and USD at 1,200 at the highest. However, in the last 10 years we have seen enormous structural changes in the way business is being done, changing trade flows and buying patterns are now the order of the day. New capacities of processed phosphates in Saudi Arabia and Morocco are changing the center of excellence away from P.R. China. The same is happening in urea – P.R. China’s once dominance in the urea export market has dwindled and new emerging origins in Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt have emerged complementing the Arab Gulf producers. Trade sanctions imposed by the USA in various countries and particularly against P.R. China and Iran have resulted in US farmers relying on subsidies from the US government to stay afloat – and Iran selling urea at heavily discounted prices in Turkey and Brazil.
I am looking forward to bringing about comments and analysis on the above and other relevant topics.
Thank you for visiting the fertiMetrics website.
–Stein