Beating demand: Surplus stock bringing down urea price

Commodity is now being sold for Rs1,200 per bag

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s urea market has a surplus of 1.6 million tons which has brought down the price of this vital input for the agriculture industry, said an official in a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Industries.

The committee, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Hidayatullah on Thursday, noted that the urea price now stood at Rs1,200 per 50kg bag.

The managing director of National Fertiliser Corporation said the installed capacity of urea manufacturing plants had gone up to 6.5 million tons after Pakistan started importing liquefied natural gas to cope with energy shortages. In comparison, the urea demand in the country stood at 5.8 million tons, leaving a surplus.

Responding to Senator Taj Haider’s question why urea was being imported when the market had a glut of the commodity, the fertiliser company MD pointed out that the country had not imported urea since December 2015 as its production capacity increased due to uninterrupted gas supply to the manufacturing plants.



Speaking about the performance of Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC), a company official told the committee that since inception, the HEC had manufactured 298 power generating units valuing Rs7.6 billion and repaired 130 units worth Rs773 million.

“At present, the complex has orders valuing Rs561 million and it is comfortably running in profit,” he said.

This prompted Senator Khalida Perveen to ask why HEC was being privatised when it was making profit.

Haider suggested that instead of privatising, the HEC should be upgraded and its production capacity be enhanced. This way the company would not only meet domestic demand but would also be able to export its products.

According to an official of the Privatization Commission, who was present in the huddle, four unsuccessful attempts have been made so far to privatise HEC and now the government is going to make another attempt.

Auto industry

Earlier, in response to the committee’s directive to submit reports about contract agreements of automobile assemblers in Pakistan, an official of the Engineering Development Board (EDB) said only Honda Atlas Cars had provided its contract agreement until now.

Indus Motor has told the EDB that prior to sharing its contract agreement the company would need Toyota Motor Corporation’s consent, which is the contracting party in the technical assistance agreement and the company will submit its response by October 15.

However, Pak Suzuki Motor Company has yet to respond to the request. Committee members directed the EDB to write a letter to the company, asking it to submit its report within a week.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2016.

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