LAHORE – Urea off-take in February 2018 jumped 44 percent annually, largely reflecting low-base effect.
As per latest data from NFDC, sales have dropped 31 percent monthly on the back of seasonal decline. Most of volume growth on YoY basis was led by Fauji Fertilizer Company and Engro Fertilizers Limited that increased their dispatches to 157,000 tons and 145,000 tons, respectively.
Furthermore, smaller urea producers such as Fatima Fertilizers Limited and Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim outperformed their larger peers and their dispatches were recorded at 38000 tons and 27,000 tons. On the other hand, RLNG based players such as Pak Arab witnessed a 37 percent YoY drop in dispatches to just 1.5ktons while Fatima didn’t record any dispatches as opposed to 14ktons in same month of last year. Urea inventory during Feb inched up to 271ktons, up 7 percent MoM, mainly due to increase in EFERT and FFC’s inventory by 13ktons and 9ktons, respectively. On a cumulative basis, urea dispatches during 2MCY18 were recorded at 909ktons, up 37 percent YoY.
Total DAP off-take grew on both YoY basis (+25 percent YoY) and sequential basis (+33 percent MoM) in Feb and was recorded at 122k tons. Impetus to growth on YoY basis mainly came from imported DAP off-take which stood at 82k-ton, up 30 percent YoY.