DAP Prices Continue to Be Lackluster in Week Ending October 6

DAP (diammonium phosphate) prices have been lackluster this year. Prices so far haven’t moved far from levels observed a year ago. Phosphate producers (MXI) such as Mosaic (MOS) have had a rough year with year-to-date losses of 28.8% as we saw in the earlier part of this series. Similarly, the phosphate segments of companies such as PotashCorp (POT), Agrium (AGU), and Israel Chemicals (ICL) have also seen losses. Let’s look at how DAP prices moved in the week ended October 6.

Last week, DAP prices in North America were broadly flat to negative. Prices at the Tampa location were flat week-over-week at $345 per metric ton, while prices at the Central Florida location also moved sideways to $322 per metric ton compared to a week ago. Year-over-year, prices in Tampa rose 2% last week and at the Central Florida location, they rose 8% year-over-year.

In contrast to the above two locations, prices at NOLA (New Orleans) fell week-over-week by 2.7% to $293 per metric ton from $301 per metric ton. Year-over-year, prices in NOLA rose 3% at this location.

In comparison to prices in North America, DAP prices in Morocco rose 28 basis points week-over-week to $360 per metric ton from $359 per metric ton a week ago. Year-over-year, prices at this location rose 4% last week. Morocco’s largest resource happens to be phosphate rock, which is key to phosphate fertilizer products.