Potent Potables: Potash

For one day, potash-related companies are taking a breather, even though prices of the fertilizer element are soaring, hitting $1000 a ton in some markets around the world.

After the 57.5% first-day gain in Intrepid Potash Inc. on Tuesday, other major potash companies were pulling back in activity Wednesday, including Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, Mosaic Co. and Agrium Inc. Other agricultural names were lower as well.


However, Belarusian Potash Company, partially owned by Russia’s Uralkali, said in a release that it was increasing the price of Belarus- and Russia-made potash fertilizers to $1,000 a ton for the South Asian market as of the beginning of July. The companies are “raising spot prices to put pressure on the Chinese,” note analysts at Citigroup.

At $1,000 a ton, the price of potash, an ingredient in plant fertilizer, has nearly quintupled from the beginning of 2007, when prices were $210 a ton, according to Citigroup. However, increased farming productivity in the U.S. and Canada, and government subsidies in developing nations, should continue to support these prices, the brokerage says.

“Spot price increases in Europe and the US should follow today’s announcement,” they write.