Coronavirus to hit China fertilizer market

The spread of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus in the PRC may lead to big problems for both fertilizer producers and their consumers, the analytics department of the Fertilizer Daily portal predicts.

Today, China is one of the largest manufacturers of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers in the world, while at the same time it is highly dependent on imports of potash. The current outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the country has already led to the suspension of logistics flows in the virus-hit regions, which could not but impact the operation of their enterprises producing nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. At the same time, the number of orders for potash fertilizers from Chinese farmers are also very likely to drop.

As a result, prices for nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers may go up due to the decrease in their exports from China, while potash fertilizer prices may fall because of possible difficulties with their import.