** Potassium market "suspense"

When potassium chloride returned to rationality in 2014, potassium began to hit the peak price. At present, the price gap between potassium chloride and potassium in the domestic market has already exceeded the 1,000 yuan mark, and the international market has started to advance to the difference of 200 euros. Industry insiders believe that the inorganic chemical industry is a miniature “window” of the overall economic trend. The global economic downturn has led to a downturn in the chemical industry and the production of “three acids and two alkalis” as the main chemical products has been compressed. At the same time, the poor digestion of potassium byproducts of potassium production has inhibited the production of potassium. Undoubtedly, the global economic trend has driven the price of potassium in the country to be “high”, and production restrictions have increased the demand for potash products in the international market.

On the other hand, in the domestic market, nitrate-based products and high-tower projects are trying to expand the market, leading to increasing prices of potassium. Since the end of 2013, Hubei Saning Chemical Co., Ltd. has an annual output of 600,000 tons of nitrate-based compound fertilizer project, Huaqiang Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd. has an annual output of 800,000 tons of nitrate-based compound fertilizer project, and Shandong Tianshan Fenghe Ecological Fertilizer Industry Co., Ltd. has achieved an annual output of 200,000 tons of tower nitro-based slow-release fertilizer project has been laid. At the same time, the market is accompanied by the release of a joint venture of Qingshang, Xinhua, Sichuan Golden Elephant Group and Hebei Qiheng Group, and the demand for **potassium is increasing in both companies and markets.

Obviously, most of the **potassium enters the production process of compound fertilizers and it is used relatively directly. Therefore, nitrite should be used as a raw material for nitrite-based products, resulting in an increase in the nick of potassium. Although the demand for compound fertilizers has driven the demand for potassium prices to keep rising, the reality is that the market demand for fertilizers has been shrinking since 2013. What is more noteworthy is that according to 40% of the production capacity of 400,000 tons of compound fertilizer output and 3 tons of compound fertilizer per ton of **potassium, if some institutions predict that **potassium will reach 3 million tons of capacity in 2014, it will make compound fertilizer. The supporting capacity is close to 10 million tons. In other words, with the increasing popularity of compound fertilizers, the living environment of the compound fertilizer market will be even worse.

At the same time, the market's capacity for nitric acid may be a disaster.

** Potassium's “hungry” market has led to a rapid increase in production capacity, which has driven Mannheim's processing of **potassium companies to start full capacity. In 2012, the total production capacity of China's Mannheim's Potassium was over 2 million tons. The shortage of supply and demand drove the increase in potassium prices in 2014. In 2012, the consumption of potassium sulfate in China was 2.865 million tons, which was higher than that in 2013. There is still room for improvement in 2014.

In addition, the use of Glauber's salt method, meta-sulfate sodium sulfate, ammonium sulfate and other methods are stepping up production, even as a result of non-economic processing methods have gradually been phased out, but also full of horsepower to catch up with this wave of market. At the same time, the price of potassium sulphate in the market was “high”, which also led to the emergence of fake and shoddy products, harming and “grabbing” the **potassium market. It is estimated that in the second half of 2014, the new production capacity of Mannheim's potassium fertilizer will be 290,000 tons/year, and the annual increase of 300,000 tons of potassium potash produced by Lop N's potash is expected to have a mature product supply in 2015. Therefore, the pattern of tight supply is expected to continue. Under the urging of ** potassium crazy, fake and shoddy products flooded the market.

There is no arrow to open the bow. It is impossible to discern whether potassium's “risk” is a disaster or opportunity, self-destruction, or self-help. It can be foreseen that when the compound fertilizer production capacity becomes more and more inflated, the supporting potassium raw materials will not be able to return as if the elephants are moving. Perhaps one day, when people begin to realize the dangers of preventing structural changes in the market and try to escape a subversive cycle, there is no doubt that the beginning of a new round of hunger killing.