· As per NFDC, Dec’21 urea offtake for the industry remains strong at 0.59mn MT, inching up 4%MoM, however, contracting 32%YoY due to high base effect. This takes cumulative CY21 offtake to 6.3mn MT, depicting a growth of 5%YoY.

· The increase in offtake of urea in CY21 has been led by EFERT (+12%YoY) and FATIMA (+3%YoY) while the sales of FFC have remained flat during the year. On the contrary, FFBL’s offtake has declined 10%YoY as its plant remained shut in Jan’21 for annual maintenance.

· DAP offtake contracted 47%MoM/43%YoY to 116.6k MT taking CY21 DAP offtake to 1.76mn MT compared to 2.16mn MT in CY20, down 19%YoY.

· To tackle the issue of persistent urea shortage, the govt. has decided to supply uninterrupted gas to LNG based plants for the next few months. In addition to this, ECC has given the green light to import 50k MT urea to provide additional buffer in the ongoing rabi season.

Courtesy – AKD Research