The sale of urea during the month of August is anticipated to reach 200k tons, as the total sales till August 29 stood at around 190k tons, according to the market sources.
This will be approx 49 percent lower than the July 2012 sales of 389k tons as dealers were anticipating decline in urea prices as there were rumors that government may supply imported urea at a higher discount than local branded urea. Thus for first eight months of 2012, urea sales to reach at 3.3mn tons versus 3.7mn tons compared to last year. However, local manufacturers sales during 8M2012 is anticipated to be lower by 31 percent to 2.3mn tons.
The company-wise data shows that out of 200k tons urea sales in August, it is estimated that Fauji group has sold around 55 percent followed by NFML (solely involved in marketing of imported urea) which contributed 16 percent of the industry sales so far. Similarly Engro’s share is around 16 percent while others contribute the rest. “We believe that more than 140k tons of imported urea out of 300k tons of import will still be available with the government during next 1month while 300k tons of fresh import is expected to come by middle of October 2012,” said Topline analyst Farhan Mahmood.
