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Middle East shipping disruptions could ignite fertilizer prices

A combustible situation in the Middle East could ignite fertilizer prices.

StoneX vice president of fertilizer Josh Linville says following a missile attack on a British container vessel transporting fertilizer in the waters of the Red Sea, ships are being rerouted.

“Those vessels are deciding to go south around Africa, that’s adding more shipping time, adding more cost.”

He tells Brownfield there are also growing tensions in the Persian Gulf.

“There’s a lot of fertilizer, a lot of nitrogen flows through the Persian Gulf (so) if all of a sudden we start to see any sort of attacks, any sort of restrictions to that waterway, it’s going to have huge implications.”

Linville says one of every two tons of urea exported around the world comes from the Middle East and North Africa.

“It’s one of those things that very, very quickly things could get out of hand.”