iShares Global Materials

There’s a handful of big players in the agricultural fertilizer industry. Setting up business requires huge capital, which makes for a high barrier to entry.

MAP (monoammonium phosphate) is the second most used phosphate fertilizer after DAP (diammonium phosphate).

Last week, DAP prices in Tampa rose the most, rising 1.7% week-over-week to $427 per metric ton, from $420 per metric ton.

In the week ending January 26, potash prices at the locations discussed below were broadly flat to positive and remained strong compared to levels observed a year ago.

MAP prices In the earlier part of this series, we discussed that DAP (diammonium phosphate) prices were broadly mixed week-over-week, while they were much higher year-over-year. MAP (monoammonium phosphate) prices last week also followed the same trend. Let’s look at it below. Weekly movements Last week, MAP prices were broadly mixed week-over-week at the two locations […]

Natural gas is one of the key input components for gas-based nitrogen fertilizer producers (MOO)(MXI) such as CF Industries (CF), Terra Nitrogen (TNH), CVR Partners (UAN), and Nutrien (NTR).

While most North American producers use natural gas to produce nitrogen fertilizers, CVR Partners (UAN) mainly uses pet coke as a hydrogen source.

The petroleum (or pet) coke index remained unchanged from the previous week during the week ending July 22, 2016.

With the emergence of China’s demand, prices moved to quarterly contracts from annual private negotiations in 2010.

The cost curve also sets the floor for the price because if price falls below the cost of production of some players, those players will be out of the market.

Capital intensity is a measure used to determine the efficiency of production.

Chinese environmental protection and pollution control measures will necessitate the use of higher content.

Surface mining is done when the deposits of commercially useful minerals are found near the surface.

Prior to the industrial revolution, most of the iron ore was mined directly from hematite deposits.