India's urea inventories dropped by 2.24mn t on the month in December, marking the second-highest month-on-month fall on record after domestic urea sales hit an all-time high of 5.76mn t, government data show.
The latest sales data are in line with provisional figures released earlier this month. Higher sales outweighed production of 2.69mn t and imports of 826,000t, resulting in a 2.24mn t reduction in urea stocks — the highest drawdown since July 2020. Stocks ended the year at 5.3mn t, down from 6.3mn t in mid-December and 7.1mn t at the start of the month, according to Argus estimates.
India's cumulative urea sales rose by nearly 1.2mn t on the year to 31.2mn t in April-December, as increased crop acreage and a shortage of DAP boosted urea demand. Imports also boomed last year, rising to 8mn t in April-December from 4.3mn t a year earlier, as importers scrambled to secure enough product to meet higher domestic demand. Indian importers collectively issued six tenders across June-November and finalised another earlier this month. Local Indian urea production fell to 22.4mn t in April-December from 23.2mn t a year earlier.
