Potash Prices Surge 9.24%! Market Panic Buying Ensues

Recently, the performance of potash and sulphur in the fertilizer feedstock market has been particularly notable, and their prices have continued to climb, rising more than expected. Taking the market price of imported 62% white potassium as an example, compared with last week, the increase has reached 4%, and compared with the lowest price in October, the increase is as high as 9.24%.

Before the Nanjing phosphate fertilizer conference held last week, the domestic potash market has initially shown an upward trend, but the increase is relatively limited, and there are still some normal supplies on the market. The fluctuation range of potassium chloride price remained within 50 yuan/ton, while the order volume of potassium sulfate increased significantly. Before the Nanjing phosphate fertilizer conference, the orders of most potassium sulfate producers had been scheduled to the end of this month, but in only one week, the orders of potassium sulfate producers could be shipped to December, and even the orders of some factories had been scheduled to the middle and late December. At present, one of the main problems facing potassium sulfate producers is that raw materials are difficult to lock, the price of potassium chloride continues to rise, and traders generally hesitate to sell, resulting in a tight supply of goods in circulation on the market.

From the point of view of the port inventory, the inventory of imported potassium chloride is maintained at the level of about 3.3 million tons, but the recent arrival of imported goods by sea is not rich. In view of the industry's limited expected arrival volume in the later period, as well as the impact of multiple factors such as overseas production cuts and strikes in Canada, domestic imported potassium chloride supplies are concentrated in the hands of large and medium-sized traders, small and medium-sized traders are reluctant to sell supplies, large traders have not yet clearly introduced new prices, resulting in market prices continue to rise. In addition, domestic potassium chloride producers on Monday also adjusted the new policy for this month, some producers adjusted the arrival price of 60% powder potassium, the new price is 2,450 yuan/ton, an increase of 70 yuan/ton from the previous price. Domestic potassium chloride manufacturers of the device production is normal, the supply of goods in the plant has been flowing, and in the case of continuous delivery, the subsequent shipping volume of this month is decreasing, in the case of insufficient spot, the price of market traders is still higher than the manufacturer's price.

Under the influence of the high concentration of imported goods, limited domestic shipping volume and insufficient railway imports, the market price of potassium chloride has risen rapidly. Under the market trend of continuous downturn in the early stage, the market opportunity is limited, and the market performance is flat in the autumn, showing a trend of low peak season. However, with the gradual start of the winter storage market, many people in the industry are optimistic about the support of the subsequent winter storage market demand, so in the case of their own limited supply of goods, they still hope to open positions at low prices, resulting in the recent overall inquiries mainly between traders, and the market is extremely active.

Observing the situation of downstream factories, the current processing type potassium sulfate and potassium nitrate factories urgently need to lock the raw material potassium chloride, so there is a certain rigid demand, and the price is adjusted with the rise of potassium chloride. The recent operating rate of compound fertilizer plant equipment is maintained at a low level, it is reported that the winter storage policy has been introduced, and most of them are in the pre-harvest, but the compound fertilizer plant pays more attention to the trend of nitrogen fertilizer prices, and the price of potash fertilizer continues to rise, although the compound fertilizer plant has a significant impact, but the total impact is still lower than the nitrogen fertilizer source.

On the whole, the supply of domestic potash supply is slightly tight, the supply is highly concentrated, the market circulation is insufficient, the downstream factories have a certain demand, but not fully released, the current market sentiment is still dominant, do not rule out the possibility that the potash market price will continue to slowly test the upward trend, but at this high level, the space is limited.