25 July 2006
Belarus signs contract to resume potash fertilizer supplies to China
Belarus has signed a contract for the supply of potash fertilizers to China, First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said while speaking to the heads of Belarus' diplomatic missions in Minsk on July 25.
According to official information sources, the vice premier insisted that the contract carried terms acceptable to Belarus, and that the target for the export of potash fertilizers in 2006 would be met.
Sources at the Belarusian State Petrochemical Concern (Belneftekhim) and the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) refused to comment to BelaPAN on Tuesday.
On June 1, Mr. Semashko reported to Aleksandr Lukashenko that the export of potash fertilizers had fallen by 25 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2006.
The decrease largely occurred because China, the world's second largest importer of potash fertilizers, has bought nothing from the BPC this year, as Belarus wanted the price to increase from $165 to $205 for a ton, whereas China suggested reducing it by $20.
According to Mr. Semashko, other countries in Southeast Asia bought and continue to buy Belarusian potash fertilizers at $217 to $235. "I guess even after the $40 increase, when the price of Belarusian potash fertilizers amounts to $205 per ton for the Chinese consumers, they will all the same have the lowest price as the largest buyers," he said.
Mr. Semashko noted that the export of potash fertilizers totaled some 7 million tons in both 2004 and 2005, but earnings rose from $751 million to $1,014 million. Exports to China reportedly rose 40.3 percent to 1,284,900 tons, or by 95 percent to $263.3 million in terms of value. The Belarusian government projected that exports to China would increase to two million tons in 2006.
According to the Ministry of Statistics and Analysis, the output of potash fertilizers in the first five months of 2006 totaled 1,665,500 tons, a 25.4-percent year-on-year decrease. May's output was 211,000 tons, 49.1 percent less than in May 2005.
In June, RUP PO Belaruskaly, Belarus' state-owned potash fertilizer giant in Soligorsk, Minsk region, had to stop the operation of all the four mines for a week because of having filled its storage facilities to full capacity.
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