Urea price rebound lifts Egyptian FOB to $448 as amsul stays weak

A urea price rebound has split the global nitrogen market since the start of July, lifting Egyptian FOB values to a peak of $448 per ton while ammonium sulfate keeps sliding, according to China Chemical Industry News data reported by SunSirs.

Algerian FOB urea peaked at $471 per ton over the same stretch. The rally came off the lows on short-covering among traders and fresh import demand, with Europe the primary engine as granular urea trading prices firmed on sustained buying.

Ammonium sulfate went the other way, fluctuating weakly and struggling to find a floor under export price suppression and policy disruption. The divergence reflects genuinely different supply patterns, demand structures and policy environments pulling the two nitrogen products apart.

The European pull behind the urea price rebound has an obvious proximate cause. France’s nitrogen subsidy covers straight nitrogen and excludes ammonium sulfate outright, and traders have told Argus they expect the scheme to divert demand from the excluded grades during a purchase window running to September 30. A policy meant to ease farmers’ nitrogen bills is sorting the nitrogen complex into winners and losers.

Fertilizer Daily reported on June 30 that urea futures had dropped 22% in a month to $366 as the Hormuz ceasefire and China’s return reshaped nitrogen markets. Urea has since found support that ammonium sulfate has not.

Source: SunSirs