The fertilizer off-take remained subdued during January-July of CY14 with 6 percent (year-on-year) production growth. According to National Fertiliser Development Centre (NFDC) statistics released for July-14 and CY14, urea off-take showed a slight decline of 1 percent YoY to 4.197 million tons in first seven months of this calendar year against 4.233 million tons in the same period last year.
Major drop was seen in the off-take of imported urea which plunged by 38 percent YoY. On month-on-month basis, total local off-take showed a decline of 15 percent and settled at 419,000 tons against 495,000 tons last month. Investcap quoting NDFC said total fertiliser production improved by 6 percent YoY. Urea production depicted a growth of 5 percent YoY to 2.739 million tons in January-July of CY14 up from 2.609 million tons in the same period last year.
The key reason for slight improvement in urea production was the availability of gas during the ongoing season as compared to previous year. During the period under review, DAP production plunged by 13 percent YoY to 363,000 tons due to less demand in the ongoing season and increase in share of imported DAP in total off-take. On monthly basis, urea production stayed upbeat by a nominal 6 percent MoM and settled at 429,000 tons in July-2014 as compared to 406,000 tons in June-2014.