A trader has sold 7,000t of granular urea to a Philippine importer at $400/t. The cargo is for shipment in the first half of November from Indonesia.
This deal is up by about $7/t compared with previous trades in the region, which suggests a potential increase in demand from southeast Asian buyers for November-loading volumes. Most southeast Asian markets will enter the nitrogen application season from end-October to November. But it is unclear how strong urea demand from the region will be, as it would depend on weather conditions and crop prices, both of which influence farmers' appetites.
Urea inventories in Thailand and Vietnam are high, and importers have not been in the market seeking any fresh volumes in the past month. The last trade in the region was state-owned Pupuk Indonesia's 8 October sale tender of 45,000t granular urea at $393.33/t fob.
