Fertilizer Chemicals Face Another Bleak Year

Abstract

Forecasts for lower demand dominate the fertilizer outlook in the U.S. as the spring planting season begins in the South. A decline in total consumption of 5 to 8% in the fertilizer year ending June 30 will send it to below 42 million tons, or to about the 1983 level when the Payment in Kind (PIK) program was used to reduce crop surpluses. About 44.5 million tons of fertilizer were used in the 1986 fertilizer year, down 9% from 1985. Programs to reduce planted acreage will speed this year's decline in U.S. fertilizer use, and thus of the major fertilizer materials—ammonia, urea, wet-process phosphoric acid, and potash. Fertilizer production, although also down, will be larger than consumption, because of a net export of material over imports. The trade balance has been slipping for some years as imports of fertilizer materials containing nitrogen increased rapidly while exports were slowing. Ammonium nitrate and urea have lost many ...