Russia-Ukraine War Impact, PKT President Director: Fertilizer Price Is Getting Unstable, But It Has Dropped

President Director of PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur, Rahmad Pribadi. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - President Director of PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur (PKT) Rahmad Pribadi said the trend of fertilizer prices in the country had been steadily increasing since 2020. However, after reaching a high record, fertilizer prices fell by 20 percent.

"During the time when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, the prices continued to climb," he said in a press conference, at The Langham, Jakarta, Wednesday, March 29.

Rahmad said, when the Russian-Ukrainian geopolitics heated up, this condition made raw material prices soar. Because of that, he said, the highest price increases occurred for those based on nitrogen.

“When the war happened, the first thing that was affected was the price of gas. That's why the price of nitrogen-based fertilizers soared," he explained.

According to Rahmad, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the market for ammonia and natural gas-based fertilizers will continue this year.

Referring to data from the International Fertilizer Association (IFA), the share of the global fertilizer market is expected to increase in 2023, namely nitrogen-based fertilizers are expected to grow 2.2 percent, 4.4 percent for phosphate-based fertilizers, and 4.2 percent for potash-based fertilizers.

Ramhad said that the trend of demand for nitrogen-based fertilizers was greatest from Latin America, South Asia, and Africa, while demand for phosphate-based fertilizers came from Latin America and South Asia, as well as potash fertilizer from Latin America, South Asia, and East Asia.

“The PKT is targeting war-affected countries as new export markets, such as India and European countries, while maintaining other existing export markets such as countries in Southeast Asia and East Asia. Besides the two continents, PKT is also expanding its market to Australia, Mexico, the United States, and South America," he said.

The PKT's valuable capital for working on this big agenda, continued Rahmad, was the PKT's proud performance. As of the fourth quarter of 2022, the fertilizer factory based in Bontang, East Kalimantan has recorded a profit of IDR 14.59 trillion, up 137 percent from last year.

"Prime human quality and qualified production technology are the success factors for PKT in the midst of rising global urea fertilizer prices which reached their peak in April 2022," he said.