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Farmer Fertilizer Focus - Phosphates

By: Josh Linville, Vice President- Fertilizer

Phosphates
 
Josh Linville
Director - Fertilizer
What everyone wants to know first, what do we think will happen going forward
I wish I could write this and tell you that I think if you wait a month or two that phosphate values will fall out of bed and present a great buy opportunity.  I truly do but I would be lying.
The phosphate market is fundamentally strong right now and shows little sign of backing off.  Global inventories are tight.  North America continues to struggle to find a new normal with Mosaic suing for a reexamination of the Counter Vailing Duty rates against Morocco and Russia.  Inventories were near empty coming out of the spring across North America.  Demand continues to be believed high this coming fall/spring with big corn acres expected in 2022 once again.
There are certainly things that can stop the upward price movement in its tracks and possibly start to pressure the market down.  A 180 by Chinese producers (start exporting again).  North American grain values plummeting, causing demand to completely dry up.  Phosphate values continuing to rise toward values that will cause enough demand to consider changing their practices (delayed buying, delayed application from fall to either winter or spring, reduced application rates, etc).
As in any market, there is a road forward where phosphate values drop but I do not see that today.  Today, it seems that prices will continue to creep higher as we move forward.
 
What has happened in the last 30 days?
Phosphate values have continued to see prices climb coming out of spring

In a "typical" year, phosphate values will decline coming out of the spring season.  There are a lot of days between the end of spring and the start of fall applications.  There are a lot of tons that are produced that cause producers to drop their values in order to bring demand forward.  This is shaping up as a year that will buck that trend.

Not only have we seen values not break lower following the end of spring 2021, prices have actually been appreciating.  Domestic U.S. producers know that demand is high enough right now and inventories low enough that they can continue to push prices higher.  Barring any sort of a shock to the system (increased production/grain prices coming under fire), it is really hard to see phosphate values dipping over the next several months.

Mosaic is suing the U.S. government to reexamine the Counter Vailing Duty rate calculations

Just to make sure everyone here is up to date, Mosaic led the charge on placing Counter Vailing Duty rates against Moroccan and Russian phosphate producers.  Simply put, any tons produced in either region and shipped to the U.S. market are now subject to a 20 - 50% duty rate.  That makes it pretty hard for those tons to flow into the U.S.

It appears that Mosaic was not content with those rates.  In the last month, they have sued the U.S. Government, stating that the rates were miscalculated (too low) and need to be reexamined.  This is new territory for most that have tracked these cases in the past.  I wish we could tell you how this will play out but we just do not have a past example to use.  The market is in the dark until this case is finalized which means we are continuing to try and find the new normal.

Where are current values in relation to the past
For DAP, we use NOLA/New Orleans Louisiana as our base point as it is the easiest spot to track.
  • Vs 30 days ago - +5% or approximately $25 higher
  • Vs 90 days ago - +11% or approximately $60 higher
  • Vs 6 months ago - +54% or approximately $206 higher;
  • Vs 1 year ago - +119% or approximately $318 higher;
Bull/Bear Factors
Because no market is ever guaranteed to go higher/lower, we try to consider the factors that can sway values so that we are able to act when they occur rather than react.
Bullish Factors
  • Without Chinese exports, global inventories are tight – China is the worlds leading producer of phosphates.  They are large enough that they eclipse nations 2, 3 and 4...combined.   Until they become a major exporter once again, it is hard to see values dropping in the near term.
  • Mosaic suing the U.S. government to reassess the duty rates causes further turmoil – in the grain markets, we typically see prices the highest when we have the most number of unknowns (spring when we are unsure acres, crop yield, weather conditions, etc.).  In fertilizer, unknowns have the same effect of pushing prices higher.  We thought we had the market figured out following the finality of the Counter Vailing Duty case against Moroccan/Russian producers.  Mosaic going back and demanding a recalculation because they think the duties were calculated too low will cause further turmoil in imports.
  • North American inventories were wiped out following fall/2022 acres expect heavy P demand once again – if we had come out of spring season with high inventory carryover, demand wouldn't be as big and it would put pressure on producers to find homes.  However, we wiped out the system meaning producers have plenty of places to fill before fall.  Couple that with expected huge demand with too early 2022 corn acre expectations north of 90M, and producers are loving life right now.
Bearish Factors
  • Just as easily as China disappeared, they can reappear just as easy – if Chinese producers start increasing production rates because they really like global values, we could see inventories become much more available and could change the mentality of the market.  Buyers feel there is plenty of product, they stop buying, producers build inventories, prices come under pressure, etc.
  • Corn markets will not stay high forever – I listed this last month and it is just as true today as it was in May.  Right now, current grain/DAP ratio values are eclipsing most everything we have seen since 2016 (and likely years before that).  Long story short, DAP is already overvalued.  If we start to see corn values under pressure, it only gets worse.  Eventually, demand will say no thank you.
  • Demand could fundamentally shift – a lot of farmers are used to applying their P (and their K) in the fall season but there is nothing written in stone that you have to.  If phosphate prices are perceived as high enough, a large amount of demand may decide to either drag their feet on fall purchases or decide to delay their applications until winter/spring to give values more time to correct.  If enough of the market takes this approach, it starts to shift pressure back to suppliers.
PHOSPHATE VALUES ARE HIGHER. GRAIN VALUES ARE HIGHER. ARE WE BETTER OR WORSE OFF THAN WHERE WE WERE?
We believe that only looking at the flat price of either grains or fertilizer can be misleading:
  • Only selling grain can hurt you if fertilizer prices rise substantially;
  • Only buying fertilizer can hurt you if grain prices fall.
We look at the ratio "value" to get a better indication of where we are or how many bushels of X does it take to pay for 1 ton of fertilizer.
 
Would you rather:
  • Spend 120 bushels to pay for 1 ton of DAP
  • Spend 60 bushels to pay for 1 ton of DAP
When we compare the current ratio value against recent years, we start to see if we are high or low.
The dotted line shows us what the market expects to see in the coming months (forward fertilizer month settlements vs forward grains).
 
YOUR VALUES WILL LOOK DIFFERENT
This graph looks at the NOLA DAP price vs the flat grain price. There are no logistics on either product. Your location will look different due to fertilizer logistical costs, grain basis, etc.
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Josh Linville’s Thoughts
  • This year is not going to be pretty from a price perspective for phosphate.  Current price levels are more than double where they were June '20 and it shows no signs of price breakage in the coming months.  Inventories are low coming out of spring.  World inventories are low.  Plenty of fall/spring demand on its way.  Producers control the price discussion right now and that typically means high prices are here to stay.
  • Consider delaying either your purchases for fall or even consider delaying your fall application until spring.  This will give the market more time to "correct".  A lot can happen to the price in a short time.  Grain values could fall.  China could export heavily.  
  • However, think about the consequence of delaying your purchase or application.  If that is your intention, HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR RETAILER/COOP/SUPPLIER.  They are built for a "normal" fall/spring period.  If enough of their farmers switch patterns, they may struggle to be prepared.
  • If you are upset about phosphate values being so high, don't feel bad as you are not alone.  That said, do not take that anger out on your supplier.  They didn't do this.  They are likely just as mad since it is much easier to sell phosphate at half of todays price.
 
  • Fertilizers

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