India's NFL closes tender to buy urea, offers in

Indian fertilizer importer NFL has closed its tender to buy urea today, with initial unconfirmed feedback pointing to lowest offers at around or slightly below $340/t cfr west coast.

NFL will evaluate and open technical offers on 30 August, with an expectation that prices will be officially revealed early next week. NFL has requested a shipment window from load ports up to 31 October.

The lowest offer price, if confirmed, would reflect netbacks of around low-mid $320s/t fob Middle East and $280/t fob Baltic, accounting for freight rates and other costs.

Indian appetite for fresh urea imports is strong, despite considerable inventories, driven by a strong monsoon. Participants expect that NFL could purchase at least 1mn t of urea under this tender. Rainfall rose by 7pc from the long-term mean since the start of June, which has buoyed domestic offtake. Urea sales to consumer could hit as high as 5mn t this month, up from 4.68mn t in August last year.

By Harry Minihan