Ammonium Sulfate Market

Ammonium sulfate is an ammonium salt used in the agricultural industry as a nitrogen fertilizer. The other commercial applications of ammonium sulfate include pharmaceutical, food processing, animal feed, and textile dyeing. It is used as a sulfur and nitrogen supplement in fertilizers. The growth of the global ammonium sulfate market is primarily driven by increasing demand in the fertilizer industry as a sulfur supplement. From the supply side, the growth of the global ammonium sulfate market is expected to be fueled by increasing production of caprolactam in industrialized countries. However, the growing adoption of nitrogen fertilizers such as urea, UAN, and ammonium nitrate owing to the rich content of nitrogen is expected to hamper the global market growth during the forecast period.

According to the Food & Agricultural Organization of United Nations (FAO), the global demand for fertilizers is expected to reach 20.6 million tons by 2020, due to growing population and subsequent need for food to be addressed within the limited arable land available. To increase the overall output of crops the demand for fertilizers is increasing. Nitrogen and sulfur are some of the key constituents of fertilizers, which help to increases the fertility of soil and yield of crops. Besides, ammonia is the major raw material used to manufacture fertilizers. Ammonium sulfate-based fertilizers are made of 21% nitrogen and 24% sulfur and used in areas with nitrogen and sulfur deficiency.

As per MRFR analysis, 87.8% of the global ammonium demand was from the fertilizer manufacturers in 2017. Though the nitrogen content in ammonium sulfate is lower as compared to other fertilizers such as urea and ammonium nitrate, they are rich in sulfur content—an essential ingredient for nourishing the plant growth and protein synthesis. The high solubility of ammonium sulfate makes it ideal for use in flooded areas and alkaline soils to adjust the pH and transferring the micronutrients from soil to plants. Besides, the sulfur content in ammonium sulfate fertilizer is in the sulfate sulfur form rather than elemental sulfur, hence, the sulfate sulfur is directly available to the crops, unlike elemental sulfur that takes nearly 90 days to be converted into sulfate and reach the crops. Thus, the advantages of ammonium sulfate in fertilizer applications are expected to boost their demand and drive the growth of the global market during the forecast period.

Ammonium sulfate-based fertilizers are widely preferred over urea for rice cultivation, as urea is susceptible to denitrification losses in flooded soil. However, the nitrogen content is found in the form of ammonium in ammonium sulfate fertilizer, and its high solubility in flooded soil makes it an ideal choice for rice cultivation. As per the FAO statistics, global rice production grew by 1.4% and was pegged 511.4 million tons in 2018, the production and consumption were mainly concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region. Some of the key rice-producing countries include India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, and Myanmar. With stable economic growth, rising population, and urbanization, the consumption of rice in the region is set to witness ~4.8% growth during the forecast period. Hence, the growing production and consumption of rice in Asia-Pacific is expected to create lucrative opportunities for the players operating in the global market.

The three primary nutrients that are responsible for enhancing the nutrient content of fertilizers are nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium or NPK. Among these ingredients, nitrogen plays a pivotal role in supplementing the nutritional contents to plants, hence, plants absorb more nitrogen as compared to the other two elements. In terms of demand, nitrogen-based fertilizers account for the largest market share in the global fertilizers market according to FAO. However, ammonium sulfate accounts for nearly 4% of the total demand for nitrogen-based fertilizers. Since, nitrogen is the most essential nutrient enhancing the ingredient in fertilizers, the availability of nitrogen-rich fertilizers such as urea, ammonium phosphate, and phosphorous and potash-based fertilizers is expected to hinder the demand for ammonium sulfate during the forecast period.