MMTC India announces new urea purchasing tender

MMTC India has announced a urea purchasing tender to take place 14 November. Offers are invited for an unspecified volume for shipment by 7 January 2019. Offers are to be valid until 22 November.

Much like the 5 October tender, the MMTC tender documentation notes that bidders are required to state the origin country of goods being offered. As expected, direct shipments of Iranian urea are effectively blocked from the tender with US sanction waivers for oil shipments not extended to other products.

The document states that “bids offering material from countries of origin against which sanctions have been imposed… shall not be considered and price bids of such tenders shall not be opened.”

The shipment window in the latest inquiry is around one week longer than the earlier 5 October tender through which over 750,000t of urea were booked for shipment by 19 November. The last tender saw sales prices of $352.88pt cfr west coast and $356.00pt cfr east coast with the business supporting a notable hike in global urea values. Middle East granular urea prices hit multi-year highs, but have since been under some pressure with buyers elsewhere unwilling to support Indian netbacks. The latest tender is therefore welcome news for producers.

By Chris Yearsley, Director, Profercy Nitrogen

E: Chris.Yearsley@profercy.com