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Belarus plans to export over 6 mln tonnes of potassium at $306 per tonne in 2014

MINSK, December 12, 21:27 /ITAR-TASS/. Belarus plans to export 6.6 million tonnes of potassium in 2014. An average export price is expected to be 306 U.S. dollars per tonne, Belarusian Finance Minister Andrei Kharkovets told a parliament session on Thursday, December 12.

While presenting a draft state budget for 2014, he said, “The document may seem to have some overestimated expectations on the background of the external market situation.”

According to November’s analytical report of the BCS financial group, West Europe’s potassium prices are 295-305 euro per tonne (394-408 U.S. dollars). However, experts believe that the prices will go down to about their minimum of 260 euro per tonne (347 U.S. dollars). Brazil’s potassium prices remained unchanged on October - 340 U.S. dollars per tonne. According to the report, potassium prices are weak and strongly influenced by buyers on the global markets.

In the mean time, in late November the Belarusian Potassium Company (BKK) said it was not going to cut prices for potash fertilizers in order to increase sales.

In mid-November, Belarusian Deputy Economy Minister Alexander Yaroshenko said that the republic planned to export in 2014 seven million tonnes of potash fertilizers at an average price of 300 U.S. dollars per tonne. However BKK partners took this careless statement as BKK’s plans to cut the price by 30-40 U.S. dollars.

At the end of July, Russia’s Uralkaly company, the world’s biggest manufacturer of potash fertilizers, said it was quitting the Belarusian Potassium Company (BKK), a joint trading enterprise with Belarus’ producer of potash fertilizers Belaruskaly. Moreover, it said it was switching to “volume above price” sales strategy. This step triggered a slump of the world’s potassium prices by about 20 percent.

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