Prices were soft in October due to weak demand mostly originating from the South Asian subcontinent while the demand from other key markets (Latin America and the US) was limited.
Prices for granular surged in November due to reduced granular urea availability and hefty demand emerging from the US. Prices for prills from Black Sea and the Baltic followed the upward trend of granular as expected.
Demand from Latin America re-emerged in November and in particular from Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Mexico to build up inventories and this was another price supporting factor.
Chinese domestic prices increased due to substantial domestic demand for the winter storage program which involves around 8 million tonnes of urea. Electricity price increases in November also led to urea prices rising due to the increase of production costs.
International urea prices improved further in the beginning of December and this trend is expected to continue into Q1 2010 on the back of a tight S/D balance.