Potash Demand Growing Leaps and Bounds
You may be hearing all of the rage in the financial newspapers, on TV and even around the water coolers about Potash fertilizer stocks.
Many have tripled over the course of the past twelve months.
So what is this Potash stuff exactly? To be exact Potash is an impure form of potassium carbonate.
It is found in a few sections of the world but the capital of Potash production and resources is found in the province of Saskatchewan, which is within the country of Canada.
Potash is found deep within the ground and has to be mined out.
To be exact, run of min ore is crushed into a chemical named KCI (which is potash) and is later scrubbed, cleaned and thickened before turning into a final Potash product.
But hey, let's put the science aside and look at it from a purely market standpoint.
Recently Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (POT), tripled the price of their Potash fertilizer on long term contracts to customers overseas.
Now how many business' have the power to not only double but triple the price of their product? That right there is proof of the demand for this fertilizer.
The prior example is from approximately the beginning of 2008.
As of this current writing (mid-June 2008) the CEO of this company has come out and said that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Now remember, CEO's are for the most part held accountable by the SEC for forward looking comments.
Potash Corp CEO Bill Doyle "We have a lot of pricing power.
We're nowhere near peak pricing" "We clearly aren't experiencing any demand destruction" While Potash Corp is considered to be the standard in the industry there are many other strong large cap and mid cap potash stocks in the market place.
Mosaic (MOS) and Agrium (AGU) have both been able to increase their prices just as POT has.
With countries such as China experiencing over 15% inflation in food prices vs last year, the demand for the fertilizer warrants these price increases.
Simply put using Potash in your crops will yield a large quantity and a higher quality of food.
This is why everyone is willing to pay large amounts to obtain the product, even to the point where a three fold increase in expense still yields a positive transaction for the agricultural growers.
Will the potash craze continue? Nothing is certain but with the recent headlines by the WHO (World Health Organization) outlining the possibility of wide spread food shortages a product that helps to create larger and higher quality crops is ripe to continue to be in demand.
Many have tripled over the course of the past twelve months.
So what is this Potash stuff exactly? To be exact Potash is an impure form of potassium carbonate.
It is found in a few sections of the world but the capital of Potash production and resources is found in the province of Saskatchewan, which is within the country of Canada.
Potash is found deep within the ground and has to be mined out.
To be exact, run of min ore is crushed into a chemical named KCI (which is potash) and is later scrubbed, cleaned and thickened before turning into a final Potash product.
But hey, let's put the science aside and look at it from a purely market standpoint.
Recently Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (POT), tripled the price of their Potash fertilizer on long term contracts to customers overseas.
Now how many business' have the power to not only double but triple the price of their product? That right there is proof of the demand for this fertilizer.
The prior example is from approximately the beginning of 2008.
As of this current writing (mid-June 2008) the CEO of this company has come out and said that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Now remember, CEO's are for the most part held accountable by the SEC for forward looking comments.
Potash Corp CEO Bill Doyle "We have a lot of pricing power.
We're nowhere near peak pricing" "We clearly aren't experiencing any demand destruction" While Potash Corp is considered to be the standard in the industry there are many other strong large cap and mid cap potash stocks in the market place.
Mosaic (MOS) and Agrium (AGU) have both been able to increase their prices just as POT has.
With countries such as China experiencing over 15% inflation in food prices vs last year, the demand for the fertilizer warrants these price increases.
Simply put using Potash in your crops will yield a large quantity and a higher quality of food.
This is why everyone is willing to pay large amounts to obtain the product, even to the point where a three fold increase in expense still yields a positive transaction for the agricultural growers.
Will the potash craze continue? Nothing is certain but with the recent headlines by the WHO (World Health Organization) outlining the possibility of wide spread food shortages a product that helps to create larger and higher quality crops is ripe to continue to be in demand.
Source...