Urea off-take up 108 percent in May

KARACHI: The urea off-take posted increase of 108 percent year-on-year to clock-in at 521,000 tons in the month of May 2017, said a report of National Fertiliser Development Centre (NFDC).

DAP sales, on the other hand, posted a decline of 35 percent YoY to 69,000 tons mainly due to reduced sales across the industry. “Manufacturers have been reluctant to import DAP mainly due to subsidy disbursement issues,” said a report of JS Research.

Fatima Group outperformed urea sales during the month with off-take up 414 percent (74,000 tons, compared to 14,000 tons in May 2016, followed by Engro Fertilizers (EFERT) up 101 percent to 139,000 tons, and Fauji Fertilizer (FFC) up 89 percent to 223,000 tons.  The urea off-take rose by 37 percent YoY to 1.69 million tons in five months of 2017 (January-May). Despite strong improvement, overall industry urea inventory remains sticky at 1,701k tons.