Calum Findlay, ADM Agriculture’s head of fertiliser, comments on the markets

European natural gas prices hit new records this week as the crisis in the Ukraine intensified, creating a very volatile nitrogen market as suppliers try to quantify moving production costs.

Nitrogen producers are seeing buyers come back to the market, locking in product ahead of applications in March-April. This will keep prices elevated in the near term.

UK ammonium nitrate producers withdrew from the market yesterday due to the surge in gas prices overnight. There is no news today of when they will return. Imported alternatives remain very short and supply is tightening.

We have Egyptian granular urea 46%N available for immediate delivery. This is a good source of nitrogen in the current cool weather conditions.

Liquid urea ammonium nitrate terms are still withdrawn at time of writing.

Globally, there has been further increases on phosphate products, and it is possible that producers are likely to raise MOP offer levels on the back of the significant uncertainty.