In June 2025, the Water Soluble Fertilizers (WSF) in China continued to showcase bullishness in its trend. This bullish market sentiments of the commodity were driven by the absence of inventory levels along with the maintained firm production cost.
In China, the WSF market witnessed bullishness in its trend in June 2025. This month, WSF experienced a significant surge of 11% driven by tight supply and firm production costs. However, the domestic demand for WSF was limited as the domestic market had entered its off-season, but the market remained bullish. Despite these contradicting factors, the WSF prices remained at a higher end as producers shifted their focus towards exports amid the limited availability of the commodity, which continued to constrain the market activity.
Most producers had already sold out their MAP export volumes for June and July, prompting many to either halt fresh offers or quote higher prices for remaining quantities. Southeast Asian buyers remained active, though many of their bids fell below producer expectations. Operating rates across key manufacturing hubs in Hubei, Yunnan, and Guizhou hovered around 45–50%, further tightening supply.
Despite subdued domestic demand, these cost factors kept MAP prices firm. The bullish outlook was further reinforced by cautious producer behavior ahead of expected buying tenders—particularly from Bangladesh—which could set the next pricing benchmark. Overall, MAP markets in China saw limited availability, steady international demand, and cost-driven pricing strength throughout June.
Adding to the upward pressure on prices, costs for raw materials such as sulphur climbed, partly influenced by rising global freight rates and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. However, the feedstocks, ammonia and phosphoric acid, experienced a decline of 4.12% and 1.03%, respectively, but the overall production cost remained firm, which continued to provide support to the bullish market sentiments of WSF in China.
Hence, despite the absence of peak plantation season in the domestic market, the WSF prices in China remained bullish due to the tight availability of the commodity and firm production costs, along with the geopolitical tensions in the Middle Eastern regions. Therefore, suppliers continued to raise their ex-quotations for WSF to reflect the current market sentiments of the commodity.
As per ChemAnalyst, the market sentiments of WSF are expected to remain strong amid the absence of enough supply to meet the demand from end-users. However, amid the consistent rise in the prices of WSF, some buyers might pull back, which could lower the demand later on. While MAP supply is still tight, the market might cool off a bit in the future if high prices lead buyers to delay or reduce orders.
