Market Morsel: Strong Urea imports into Australia (again)

Market Morsel

The data is now in for September urea imports into Australia. Urea imports and availability have been a topic of contention for most of this year as supplies dwindled, and farmers were asked to purchase to ensure they got access to supplies.

We have been keeping an eye on import volumes to determine whether supplies have been available or not. The data usually tells the story.

In the first chart below, we can see the cumulative imports of urea into Australia. Through to the end of September, 2.83mmt of urea has been imported across the country. This is a record volume, 319kmt higher than the previous record. This is a surplus above the production from the mothballed IPL facility on Gibson Island.

The second chart shows urea imports and a theoretical IPL production from Gibson Island. This is to show a theoretically available supply within Australia.

The data tells us that supply is likely adequate in Australia, and throughout the year, volumes of imports have been very strong.