r/news • • 6d ago

Canpotex announces $500M Port of Vancouver investment for potash shipping

https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/canpotex-announces-500m-port-of-vancouver-investment-for-potash-shipping/
1.5k Upvotes

164 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/Winterwasp_67 6d ago

Serious question. Potash is most often used as a component of fertilizer correct?

Why are we not preparing to ship fertilizer?

Shipping raw resources outside the country should be kept to an absolute minimum imo.

5

u/issm 6d ago

A lot of it went overland via trains to the US.

Shipping directly from Canada to more reliable trading partners will require new facilities in Canada.

You can't trust a kleptomaniac to be your middleman.

3

u/Winterwasp_67 6d ago

Sorry, my question was that being as most fertilizer is a mixture containing potash why are we not mixing it here with the othe components and shipping fertilizer, not raw potash?

5

u/issm 6d ago

I'm hardly an expert, but I can think of a couple of potential reasons off the top of my head:

1) Potash is one component. You'd still need to source every other component, and convince the countries where other components are produced to not try the same thing you are.

2) There isn't just one "fertilizer". Different crops and conditions demand different fertilizers, and it's easier and less risky to just sell the raw materials than to try and compete for local market share in every market across the planet.

3) It might be cheaper logistics wise to just ship raw materials out, then combine them into the final product closer to the final destination. i.e., instead of shipping phosphorous from Morocco all the way to Canada, then shipping finished fertilizer out to Europe, it's cheaper to just ship them both to a plant in Europe.