Fertiliser Output Inches Up In June

Nitrogen production edged up marginally to 9.25 lakh tonne in June this fiscal from 9.20 lakh tonne during the same period last year, while phosphate production saw a 17 per cent increase to 3.04 lakh tonne (2.59 lakh tonne), an official release said yesterday.

While dap production was 4.27 lakh tonne against the target of 2.66 lakh tonne, production of urea fell marginally short of the targeted 16.90 lakh tonne at 16.71 lakh tonne.

However, cumulative production of nitrogene during the first quarter of the current fiscal fell marginally to 24.19 lakh tonne against 24.96 lakh tonne produced during the same period last fiscal.

 

Cumulative production of phosphate saw a 18.4 per cent increase to 8.75 lakh tonne during April-June as compared with 7.39 lakh tonne produced in the corresponding period in the previous year.

During June, 17.35 lakh tonne of urea was despatched to the states against a target of 16.3 lakh tonne. Cumulative availability at 63.25 lakh tonne by June was 58 per cent of the ECA allocation of 108.10 lakh tonne for the season.

However, sale of urea was 22 per cent lower at 16.96 lakh tonne up to June 15, as compared with sale of 21.83 lakh tonne in the corresponding period of the previous year, mainly due to poor off-take in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan during May, the release said.

Cumulative availability of dap by the end of June was 19.11 lakh tonne as compared with the availability of 18.10 lakh tonne during the corresponding period of the previous year while the same of mop was 6.86 lakh tonne as against the availability of 9.63 lakh tonne uptil June 1999.

There had been no imports of urea so far during kharif

2000, the release said.

During June, about 1.38 lakh tonne of dap and 1.25 lakh tonne of mop were imported. The cumulative arrivals of dap and mop in the country had been 2.99 lakh tonne and 5.42 lakh tonne respectively.

The average daily loading of fertilisers through rail during June was 3,089 equivalent bg wagons per day as against 3,715 bg wagons per day in the corresponding period of last year, the release added.