fertilizer

" China keeps ahead of the world in terms of chemical fertilizer output, imports volume and consumption. Although In 2004, China's fertilizer output grew by over 10％ year-on-year, supply shortage continued in the market and prices soared. The main reasons for rising fertilizer prices were: growing demand and rising transportation cost. Raw material prices generally rose and the prices of coal, electricity, oil and gas remained high, limiting the room for enterprises to cut cost. In the next 5 years, chemical fertilizer demand in China will continue to rise, up by 9％ a year. Meanwhile, the nitrogen, sulphur and potassium fertilizer structure will become more rational. After years of technological advancement and technological upgrades, China is now the world's largest producer of nitrogenous fertilizer and urea. Under the circumstance of growth of urea price in 2004 and 2005, domestic producers of nitrogenous fertilizer boost production capacity. According to primary statistics, the added capacity in 2005 was 5.37 mt/a and it’s expected that in 2006 the figure is 1.92 mt/a or above. In 2007~2008, another 5.28 mt/a capacity will be commissioned. Due to high production cost, fertilizer price stayed at a high level in 2005."