September 26, 2018 (MLN): Total sale of fertilizers (Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash), during the five months of Kharif season running from April-August 2018, have declined by 15.2% as compared to the sales made in the Kharif season of 2017.
Fertilizer offtake during the Kharif season 2018 has dropped down to 1.76 million tonnes over the year. Of this amount, 285.3 thousand tonnes were sold in August, a decline of 43.2% from the offtake recorded during August 2017.
Of these 285.3 thousand tonnes of fertilizer sold, the largest share of sale was that of Nitrogen at 236 thousand tonnes, while Phosphate at 45 thousand tonnes and Potash at 4 thousand tonnes, followed.
The sale of Nitrogen in August 2018 recorded a year-on-year downswing of 47.5% whereas Phosphate sales dropped by 8.2%. Only the sales of Potash took a leap of 11% on a year-on-year basis.
Urea
As per the data from the National Fertilizers Development Centre (NFDC) of the Planning Commission, urea sales too have suffered a decline of 21.3% during these five months of Kharif 2018, as they dropped from 3 million tonnes to 2.4 million tonnes, compared to the corresponding period of the prior year.
Of these 2.4 million tonnes sold, merely 431 thousand tonnes of offtake has been recorded for the month of August, which shows a decline of 51.3% from urea offtake during the previous year.
The largest portion of these 431 thousand tonnes was sold in Punjab, about 308 thousand tonnes. From the remaining amount, 91 thousand tonnes were sold in Sindh, 21 thousand tonnes in KP and 11 thousand tonnes in Baluchistan.
Compared to August 2017, the highest decline is urea usage was recorded in Sindh where usage dropped by 63%. Meanwhile, usage in Punjab dropped by 49%, and that in Baluchistan dropped by 55%. KP remained the only province where urea usage increased by 7%.
While domestic production of urea in the month of August 2018 was only 486 thousand tons, the leftover from the previous month of about 86 thousand tons meant that a total of 572 thousand tons of urea were available to be used. Since total consumption in August was only 430 thousand tons, a total of 130 thousand tons will be available to be used at a later date.
DAP
DAP sales, on the other hand, kicked off from about 639 thousand tonnes during last year’s Kharif season to 698 thousand tonnes, demonstrating a jump of about 9.3%. Only 79 thousand tonnes of this sum was sold in August, showing an increase of 1.7% from the sales made in August 2017.
Of these 79 thousand tonnes, 53 thousand tonnes were sold in Punjab, 21 thousand tonnes in Sindh, 2 thousand tonnes in KP and 25 hundred tonnes in Baluchistan.
As compared to August 2017, the maximum decline in DAP usage has been recorded for Baluchistan, that of 42%, while DAP usage in KP fell by 24%. On the other hand, DAP usage in Punjab rose by 2% while that in Sindh increased by 15%.
While domestic production of DAP in the month of August 2018 was only 61 thousand tons, the leftover from the previous month of about 359 thousand tons meant that a total of 693 thousand tons of DAP were available to be used. Since total consumption in August was merely 79 thousand tons, a total of 618 thousand tons will be available to be used at a later date.
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