Buying phosphate: the decisions that matter
Written for the person who has to sign the purchase order. Each guide works through a decision, says what goes wrong when it is made badly, and ends with the specification points to write into the contract.
MAP or DAP: how to choose between them
The two most common phosphate fertilizers are close on analysis and quite different in the warehouse. Five criteria decide it, and price is the least reliable of them.
Read the guide → 7 min readMAP or TSP: the choice that is really about nitrogen
Both deliver about 46–52% phosphate. One brings nitrogen with it and one does not, and that is the whole decision.
Read the guide → 6 min readGranular or powder: the form decides how the product behaves
The same analysis in two forms is two different products. One blends, one does not, and the price difference is not the reason to choose.
Read the guide → 7 min readHow to read a fertilizer grade — and what the label does not tell you
Three numbers, one convention, and a set of assumptions that are never printed. Reading a grade properly is the first skill in buying fertilizer.
Read the guide → 9 min readHow to buy phosphate fertilizer from China without learning it the hard way
Buying from China is straightforward when four things are settled before the contract and expensive when they are not. Here is the sequence that works.
Read the guide → 7 min readPhosphate fertilizer packaging: what to specify and why it changes the price
Two offers at the same price per tonne can differ by the bag, the liner and the loaded quantity. Packaging is a commercial specification, not a detail.
Read the guide → 8 min readShipping phosphate fertilizer: container, breakbulk, and what decides it
Container or breakbulk is a commercial decision as much as a logistical one. The rate is the smallest part of the comparison.
Read the guide → 7 min readPhosphate quality inspection: what to test, when, and who pays
Inspection is not a formality at the end of a transaction. Where it sits in the sequence determines whether it prevents a dispute or documents one.
Read the guide → 7 min readA certificate of analysis is only worth its test methods
Four things make a COA usable rather than decorative. Most certificates in circulation have two of them, and the two that are missing are the ones that matter.
Read the guide → 6 min readFOB, CFR and CIF: what each one actually allocates
The three terms differ in who pays the freight. They do not differ in where risk passes, and that misunderstanding costs buyers more than the freight does.
Read the guide →What to have ready
An enquiry that gets a usable answer in one round carries five things: the product and grade, the quantity, the discharge port, the trade term, and the specification the material has to meet. The last one is the one buyers most often leave out, and it is the one that decides whether the cargo is accepted at the port.
If the specification comes from a tender document, send the document. If it comes from an existing supplier's COA, send the COA. Comparing two offers without a common specification is comparing two different products that happen to share a name.
Request a phosphate quotation
Send the product, grade, quantity and destination port. We reply with a specification, packing options, the shipping basis and a price for your market.