Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) met on 7 May and has approved the import of 200,000t of urea for the Kharif summer season.
The ECC did not disclose an exact timeline, but a tender will have to be issued shortly if the imports are to meet demand in Kharif, which runs from April to September with demand peaking in June-July.
Pakistan occasionally enters the import market to plug supply gaps in key consumption periods. State-owned importer TCP previously agreed a deal with Azerbaijan’s state-owned Socar in early December last year to source 200,000 MeT of urea for arrival by 20 January.
Domestic supplier Engro began maintenance at its 1.3Mn MeT/yr granular urea EnVen plant towards the end of April and is expected to return to production in mid-June.
Pakistan’s urea inventories started April at around 170,000 MeT, but are set to be under significant pressure in June-July, data from the country’s national fertilizer development centre (NFDC) show. Demand is set to hit over 800,000 MeT in June and around 650,000 MeT in July, outstripping typical domestic output of 520,000-555,000 MeT/month in the peak summer months. This has prompted the need for imports, given current stock levels.
