The first shipment of 31,000 tons urea, imported by TCP under $100 million credit grant of Saudi Fund for Development, arrived at Gwadar on Monday.
In January this year, the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet directed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to ensure supply of urea during Rabi crop, for which urea import should be arranged through Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) against $100 million credit grant of Saudi Fund for Development as well as purchase be made from open market, through tenders.
Under an agreement singed between TCP and Saudi government, Sabic will supply 125,000 tons urea during March 2011. A ship MV APOSTOLOS carrying 31,219 tons of urea loaded from Al-Jubail Saudi Arabia arrived on Monday morning at Gwadar port, while the next shipment has also sailed from Saudi Arab and is expected to reach Pakistan in two days.
The distribution, transportation and bagging of urea will be handled by M/s National Fertiliser Marketing Limited (NFML) to provide urea to farmers in time to help them meet their Rabi requirement. With timely arrival of first consignment, it seems that TCP will complete urea import operation in specific time period to avoid any shortage in Rabi season. Following the directives of the ECC, TCP has completed the import of 106,000 tons urea through private sector at $408.68 per ton.