Malaysia increased urea exports despite production challenges

Malaysia’s urea exports from January to July saw a 4% increase from the previous year, reaching 1.17 million tonnes, according to the Argus research group. This rise was supported by strong deliveries to Australia, even amidst multiple production interruptions at state-owned Petronas facilities.

Petronas experienced several operational setbacks, including three separate shutdowns at its 700,000 tonnes per year Bintulu urea plant and a two-week outage at its 693,000 tonnes per year Gurun plant. Despite these disruptions, Petronas managed to fulfill its term commitments, with a notable increase in deliveries to Australia—up 7% from last year. This surge was attributed to favorable monsoon seasons and heavy rainfall in Australia, which spiked local urea demand.

While exports to Australia flourished, other markets showed mixed results. Deliveries to Mexico saw a significant rise from 33,000 tonnes to 113,800 tonnes. Exports to New Zealand also increased, reaching 60,500 tonnes compared to 21,700 tonnes in the previous period. However, exports to Thailand and the Philippines faced declines, dropping by 30% and 44% respectively, due to competition from Indonesian producers and decreased local demand.

Further challenges were noted in Myanmar, where exports plummeted by 53% as local importers turned to cheaper urea sources from Oman.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of the year, Malaysia anticipates an uptick in urea exports. This expectation is driven by existing term commitments and planned shipments of at least 40,000 tonnes of spot urea to East Coast India, with additional cargoes destined for regional markets and the West Coast of Latin America.

Source: Argus