Spain sees increased reliance on Russian fertilizer imports

Spain is seeing an increased reliance on imports of some fertilizers from Russia, according to trade data released on Dec. 20 from S&P Global Market Intelligence's Global Trade Atlas.

Roughly 15% of Spanish urea imports from January-October —nearly 120,000 mt--have come from Russia, the data showed. That makes the major exporter the Southern European country's second largest trade partner of the nitrogen fertilizer behind Egypt, which was responsible for about 375,000 mt of exports to Spain over the same period. Moreover, this marks the first time since 2008 that Spain has imported over 100,000 mt of urea from Russia in the first 10 months of the year.

Spain also saw record imports of calcium ammonium nitrate from Russia, which sent over just under 45,000 mt from January to October; Spain's total imports of the nitrogen fertilizer over the same period were nearly 223,000 mt. This is nearly 60% more than the previous record of about 28,000 mt of Russian CAN exported to Spain in 2007, according to the data.

The elevated figures come as some market participants remain cautious of European dependence on fertilizer imports from Russia. In November, Antoine Hoxha, director general of Fertilizers Europe, a trade association, called on the European Commission to "promptly put forward a proposal for tariffs that would effectively stop imports of fertilizers from Russia and Belarus to the EU."

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed its weekly CAN FCA Spain spot price at Eur285/mt on Dec. 19, an increase of Eur 5/mt on the previous week.