The Lermontov plant in the mountainous North Caucasus region can produce about 5,000 tonnes a month of crop nutrient monoammonium phosphate among other products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has doubled its planned deliveries this quarter and has orders for more than twice its current output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are practically not sleeping \u2026 Phone on the bedside table, clients calling, we\u2019re jumping up to reply because the moment is so hot,\u201d said Edward Gurary, chief commercial officer of the plant\u2019s trading arm, Cashmere Capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had a fairly balanced shipping plan for the first quarter and now that plan has been doubled. We have twice as many orders as production capacity. And now we are juggling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The upturn comes as major international trading firms that previously relied on supplies from China are scrambling to source their goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have had an absolute flood of requests from clients who have not been interested in our products in the past, opting for cheaper Chinese products instead,\u201d Gurary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demand surged early this month after China introduced restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of the virus, including widespread shutdowns in Hubei province, where the outbreak originated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hubei is home to 60-65% of Chinese phosphate production, according to analysts at brokerage Bernstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 60% of Hubei\u2019s phosphate production has now been halted and shipments of phosphate-based fertilisers from China fell by around 700,000 tonnes in February, said Russian fertiliser major Phosagro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
United States-based producer Mosaic has said it expects a global phosphate shortfall of 2 million tonnes in the first half of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lermontov plant, part of the Almaz Group, exports 80% of its output and positions itself as a boutique, high-end producer. Its monoammonium phosphate fertilisers are on average $100 a tonne more expensive than Chinese equivalents, Gurary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a substantial difference for the market. But now they\u2019re reaching out to us,\u201d he said, adding that the plant\u2019s new clients include some of the world\u2019s biggest fertiliser trading companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leap in demand is also the result of new quarantine policies in ports around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA large number of vessels are not even being allowed to enter ports,\u201d Gurary said, citing clients in his factory\u2019s main export markets – Brazil, the United States and Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Resource: www.reuters.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW, Feb 28 (Reuters) – The outbreak of a new coronavirus in China\u2019s Hubei province has struck the heart of the country\u2019s fertiliser sector, prompting a wave of orders for a small plant in southern Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cashmere-cap.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}