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Middle East tensions add to combustible urea market
The vice president of fertilizer for Stone X Group says increased tensions in the Middle East are concerning for farmers.
“High tensions usually mean higher prices.”
Josh Linville says Iran’s attack this week on Israel adds to an already volatile urea market that’s seen many countries severely reducing exports.
“All of these add up to a situation where urea is very, very tightly supplied.” He says, “Any sort of gap we might have had between global supply and global demand has been completely destroyed, and now prices are finally starting to reflect that. And we’re now starting to see anhydrous and UAN values follow suit.”
He tells Brownfield any regional conflict in the Middle East would have a major impact on the global fertilizer market.
“It is hard to overstate how important it is for fertilizer production across the board.” He says, “Looking specifically at urea, if you look at North Africa and the Middle East region just as one whole, one out of every two tons of urea exports from that little part of the map. Insanely important.”
Linville says urea barge load prices are up 10% this week, and he says farmers planning fall or spring fertilizer applications should be having conversations with their retailers on a regular basis.
AUDIO: Josh Linville – Stone X Group
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