Indian agency MMTC has issued an addition to its tender to buy urea, which explicitly excludes Iranian urea from being offered.
The move clarifies a previous clause stating it could not guarantee payments to sanctioned countries.
"Bids offering material from countries of origin against which sanctions have been imposed/likely to be imposed, shall not be considered and price bids of such tenders shall not be opened," the document said. It also states that offers with open-origin cargoes will not be accepted.
Iran is a major supplier of urea to India. Its January-June imports this year totalled 3.4mn t of urea, of which 1.15mn t came from Iran, according to GTIS. Last year's total imports of 5.9mn t saw India buy 1.6mn t from Iran.
The tender closes tomorrow and shipment is required up to 19 November.
India does not set a specific tonnage target for its urea tenders, but stocks have fallen to about 400,000t. Argus estimates that 2mn t is needed for shipment up to mid-January.
India last issued a tender for urea on 1 August, when it bought 712,000t of largely Iranian urea at $274.80-278.95/t cfr for shipment up to 16 September.
