Iran sanctions could swell India's urea import bill

With the new US sanctions on Iran, our urea import cost is likely to rise. In 2017-18, our import was 6 million tonnes  (mt) and a third of this was from Iran, which supplies 4.5 mt annually to the world market.

If, due to sanctions, these supplies don’t come to the market, global prices will shoot up.

India was importing urea via the UAE route and making payment in dirhams (the latter's currency) during the earlier sanctions period. Now, global urea traders are worried if the UAE would oblige this time, say sources.

Urea prices have already been on a rise for a