November 25, 2020 (MLN): Urea offtake witnessed a substantial rise of 240.4 percent during the month of October 2020, standing at 413 thousand tonnes as compared to the same period of last year.
This high increase is attributed to a very low offtake (121 thousand tonnes) during the same time frame of last year (2019) due to high prices of urea and uncertainty in the market about waiving off Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC).
According to a monthly report published by National Fertilizer Development Centre, the total urea availability during October 2020 was about 1071 thousand tonnes, which comprised of 473 thousand tonnes leftover of the previous month and 598 thousand tonnes of domestic production (Table 4). The offtake of urea was 413 thousand tonnes, leaving a balance of 672 thousand tonnes of urea for November 2020.
The Rabi 2020-21 season started with an opening inventory of 473 thousand tonnes of urea. With the estimated domestic production of 3041 thousand tonnes, the total availability of urea would be around 3514 thousand tonnes. Urea offtake during Rabi 2020-21 is estimated at around 3244 thousand tonnes leaving behind a closing inventory of 284 thousand tonnes. Closing inventory during December 2020, January and February 2021 is below the recommended level which reflects a tight situation and needs operationalization of two (2) SNGPL based urea plants on LNG.
Province wise, Offtake of urea increased by 283, 240 and 238 percent, year on year, in Punjab, Sindh and KP, respectively while it decreased by 34 percent in Balochistan during October 2020.
