Urea Sales Decline 16% in August as Floods Ravage Agriculture

The urea offtake has shown a decline of 16 percent to 542,000 tonnes during August 2022 compared with 649,000 tonnes during August 2021 due to ravaging monsoon floods across the country. According to the provisional fertilizer offtake data for the month of August released by Arif Habib Limited, the combined offtake of Fatima Fertilizers Company (FFC) and Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (FFBL) declined by 31 percent on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis to 219,000 tonnes, while Engro Fertilizers Limited (EFERT) saw a decline of 14 percent to 175,000 tonnes. The urea sales of FATIMA witnessed a jump of 14 percent YoY, arriving at 104,000 tonnes. Urea offtake reported a growth of 17 percent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis, mainly due to seasonality factor. The combined sales of FFC and FFBL climbed up by 29 percent, while EFERT and FATIMA depicted a growth of 102 and 4 percent MoM respectively. During the 8 months of 2022 (8MCY2022), urea offtake surged by 4 percent YoY to 4,251,000 tonnes. FATIMA witnessed a boost of 31 percent to 649,000 tonnes, while the combined sales of FFC and FFBL slid by 1 percent to 1,925,000 tonnes during 8MCY2022 against the same period of previous year. EFERT offtake plunged by 16 percent YoY to 1,359,000 tonnes. Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) offtake witnessed a massive decline of 87 percent YoY to 23,000 tonnes. The combined sales of FFC and FFBL registered a slump of 87 percent YoY to 13,000 tonnes. The DAP sales of EFERT plunged by 40 percent to 9,000 tonnes. DAP sales witnessed a decline of 65 percent MoM. The combined sales of FFC and FFBL slid 68 percent MoM during August 2022, while EFERT witnessed a decline of 63 percent. During 8MCY2022, the combined sales of FFC and FFBL declined by 19 percent YoY to settle at 413,000 tonnes, while EFERT offtake slid by 2 percent to 143,000 tonnes. The closing inventory of urea producers stood at 203,000 tonnes during August against 205,000 tonnes in July. Moreover, the inventory position of DAP is 429,000 tonnes as of August 2022.