National Fertilizer Development Centre (NFDC) has released fertilizer off-take numbers for the month of May 2019, wherein total fertilizer off-take stood at 940K tons, up 40%, YoY and 84%, MoM.

Industry urea sales for the month of May ’19 clocked in at 593K tons, up 20%, YoY, and higher by 1.03x, MoM, on the back of forecasted budgetary measures, seasonal demand and pre- buying in anticipation of price hike in July. Meanwhile, DAP sales for the month of May ’19 clocked in at 213K tons, up 263%, YoY, and higher by 1.47x, MoM, on the back of launch of subsidy program by Government of Punjab.

Company-wise performance reveals FFC continued to outperform in terms of urea sales grabbing a market share of 46% in May-19 at 271K tons posting a decent growth of 206%, MoM and 5%, YoY. This was followed by EFERT, FATIMA and FFBL with a share of 24% at 141k tons/6% at 36k tons and 13% at 79k tons, respectively.

On the other hand DAP’s market share depicted a different picture with FFBL on the top by capturing a market share of 36% at 77K tons in May-19 followed by EFERT and FFC with a share of 28% at 60K tons and 6% at 34K tons, respectively.

On a cumulative basis industry off-take during 5MCY19 rose by a meager 3% to clock-in at 3,307K tons against 3,204k tons during same period last year.

Going forward, we foresee the industry posting decent growth due to ongoing seasonal demand in Kharif season. (Courtesy AL Habib Capital Markets (Pvt) Ltd.)