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Global factors raise price of nitrogen

A fertilizer specialist says several global factors are starting to affect urea prices and farmers might want to talk to local suppliers about securing nitrogen.

Josh Linville with Stone X Group says China, the world’s largest urea producer, is putting new export restrictions on the product and India is looking for more.

“They want to buy another block of tons. We don’t know details about how many tons are available or the pricing, but I can tell you international values over the three day weekend are up more than $100 per ton.”

He says the increase in urea values will also boost the cost of anhydrous and UAN.

“If you see urea go up and stay there, more demand flows to UAN and anhydrous, because it’s cheaper in comparison and that demand flow helps support values.”

Linville says if farmers have not already locked in their nitrogen needs and local rates have already increased, it could be a good idea to wait. But…

“If you’ve been teetering on the fence, I’d lean toward the buy side of it.”

Linville says the fall anhydrous application season was already expected to be one of the largest on record and as urea prices increase, the situation will only get worse.