Brazil reexports second fertilizer cargo in a month

Brazil reexported today 23,400 metric tonnes (t) of phosphate DAP to Turkey, owing to low liquidity in the domestic market.

The vessel left Ponta do Felix port, located in Antonina in Parana state. The volume came from Jordan, was stored in a bonded warehouse since June and was still in property of the exporter company at the terminal.

DAP weekly range assessed by Argus on 20 October was at $630-650/t cfr Brazil, a discount of $220/t over $840-850/t cfr Turkey. Brazil usually has a premium over the Turkish market, but since early August the discount increased from $10/t to $220/t last week.

This is the second fertilizer reexport from Brazil in nearly a month. In late September a 17,000t TSP cargo was reexported to the US.

The reexports were the first ones in Ponta do Felix port over at least the last five years.

The companies' names were not released, but president of Ponta do Felix port, Gilberto Birkhan, told Argus the companies are not the same. Birkhan said reexporting is not a common move in the Brazilian market, adding that a third company has recently studied the possibility to run a reexport, but the move did not work out because of competition in the origin market.

Ponta do Felix port has a storage capacity of 275,000t, which includes not only fertilizers, but all the products exported and imported via the port. Currently, the port has about 20pc of its storage space empty. About 75pc of the occupied space accounts for volumes that already have a buyer in Brazil but were not yet nationalized, and the other 25pc are occupied by goods that are still the property of the exporter.

By Renata Cardarelli and Flavia Bohone