Indian DAP stocks increased slightly in April as a result of combined imports and production marginally outweighing domestic demand, in line with expectations from provisional data earlier this month, according to Indian fertilizer association FAI data.
Indian DAP stocks rose marginally to just below 1.93mn t by the start of May, Argus estimates. This was also a recovery from around 1.60mn t of DAP inventories at the end of April last year, although stocks remained more than 1mn t lower than the average for the time of year over 2022-24.
DAP stocks are also down slightly from the start of this year because increased output has not covered the substantial fall in imports in the face of firm offtake compared with last year.
India produced 303,000t of DAP in April, just 10,000t lower than in the same month last year, according to FAI data, although DAP production over January-April of 1.175mn t was ahead of the 933,000t produced in the first four months of 2025. But the lack of sulphur and ammonia — key raw materials for DAP production — raises doubts over whether India can sustain this trend.
Imports are significantly lagging year-earlier levels. DAP imports of only 49,000t last month brought the January-April total to 298,000t — or just 39pc of India's DAP imports over the same period in 2025. Importers facing firm global prices, especially since the start of the US-Iran war and the closure of the strait of Hormuz, have kept to the sidelines while they wait for further clarity on whether the government will provide additional financial support to importers beyond the nutrient-based subsidy.
Major importer IPL successfully lined up more than 1.3mn t of DAP in its 7 May tender on behalf of several importers, following the government's recommendation that importers buy on a consortium basis.
Domestic DAP sales of 326,000t in April surpassed the total for April last year by 114,000t. And offtake since January of 1.736mn t is 49pc higher than in the same period in 2025.
TSP stocks fell by 31,300t in April because no imports arrived to replace product sold domestically, according to FAI sales data and Argus lineup data. Argus estimates Indian TSP stocks at the end of April at around 374,000t.
