Ammonia is one of the most important pillars of the agricultural industry. Fertilizers, especially nitrogen fertilizers, are in direct use on agricultural land to increase fertility, as is the case in the United States of America and some developed countries. According to a recent statistical report issued by the International Union for the fertilizer industry tThe total global production of Ammonia in the year 2010 is about 130 million tons, an increase of 2.6% over 2009 and some of those specialized in the manufacture of fertilizers and raw materials.
Abdulrahman Jawahery, President of Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company in a statement said that Ammonia, like all other commodities, obeys the laws of supply and demand, whether positively or negatively.
He added that Ammonia is one of the important raw materials for the production of nitrogen fertilizers such as Urea and Ammonium Phosphate. Fertilizers of both types, unilateral, bilateral and Ammonium nitrate fertilizers are used directly to fertilize the soil.
Jawahery pointed out that one of the most interesting features in the world market for Ammonia is that the price is not linked closely to the global trade of urea, in spite of the close contact between the two chemically. When we examine the global market at the moment in Ammonia, we can observe a significant recovery in terms of increasing demand and a consequent raising of the price to about $450 per metric ton. Prices are subject to further increase in the future, in a time where there is a recession. The Urea market is flat due to the absence of the daily demand for it because of the non-entry of some influential importing countries such as India, which hopefully will resume imports of urea in the near future.
Jawahery further noted that the volume of world trade Ammonia is about 13% of the total world production. The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is one of the largest producers and exporters of ammonia, and has a share of total world exports of about 5 million tons, equivalent to 30%.
He also explained that most of the Ammonia trade involves sea transportation by sea, with 80% being shipped in specialized tankers, while the remainder is transferred through rail distribution networks, as is the case in the United States, Canada and by Trains in Europe.
Talking about the future outlook for Ammonia, Jawahery expected to see an increase in the production of Ammonia to about 186 million tons by the year 2015 and the share of GCC countries to be about 12 million tons, equivalent to around 10% of the total production World of Ammonia.
Many projections indicate an expected increase in the world trade volume of Ammonia to reach about 24 million metric tons by the year 2015, an increase of 26% compared to 2010. It is known that the export of Ammonia from the Arab Gulf represents about 17 % of the volume of world exports.
The United States is one of the largest importers of Ammonia, at an estimated 6 million tons per year or 39%, followed by India at 12% and South Korea, where imports increased by 7%.