The Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P) has proposed import of 0.385 million tons urea from open international market to meet Rabi season requirements, well informed sources told Business Recorder. Giving the details, sources said Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) in its meeting last month approved the import of 0.185 million tons urea through SABIC facility against a requirement of 0.6 million tons for Rabi.
The ECC further directed the Industries & Production and Petroleum & Natural Resources Divisions for the provision of natural gas to local fertilizer manufactures to meet the maximum demand of urea to save precious foreign exchange. As desired by the ECC, to ensure the availability of natural gas to local fertilizer manufacturers, two meetings were held with Secretary Ministry of Petroleum Natural Resources. The Ministry of Petroleum & NR revealed that two fertilizer plants on SNGPL system ie Pak Arab Fertilizer Limited and Dawood Hercules Fertilizer Limited would be provided 50 MMCFD gas for fifteen days each on rotational basis. Gas supply to Pak Arab Fertilizer Limited has already commenced from October 23, 2014. This would add almost 30,000 Metric Tons of Urea to the local production.
In order to review demand/supply situation of urea for Rabi season (October 2014-March-2015), a meeting of Fertilizer Review Committee (FRC) was held in Ministry of industries and Production on October 21, 2014. All the stakeholders attended the meeting. The representatives of Fertilizer Manufacturers of Pakistan Advisory Council (FMPAC) argued that in the current scenario the domestic production of urea fertilizer will be to the tune of 2.38 million tons against the expected off-take of 3.10 million tons, whereas the stock position of imported urea with National Fertilizer Marketing Limited (NFML) as on October 20, 2014 is 108,000 Metric Tons. The representative of National Food Security Division said that the timely availability of urea was critical during the months of November-December 2014 to achieve the production target of 26 Million Tons of wheat.
After detailed deliberations, the meeting proposed that: (i) Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) may be directed to ensure import of Urea fertilizer of 0.185 Million tons under SABIC facility by December 15, 2014; and (ii) balance quantity of 0.385 Million Tons may be imported as soon as possible from open international market. The Foreign Exchange required for the import of 0.385 Million Tons of urea will approximately be $123.92 million and involve approximately Rs 4.19 billion subsidy.