DAP Fertilizer 18-46-0

Diammonium phosphate, granular 18% N / 46% P₂O₅

DAP is the world's most traded phosphate fertilizer and it is contracted on a short list of numbers: total nitrogen 18% minimum, available phosphorus as P₂O₅ 46% minimum, of which at least 41% water-soluble, moisture 1.5% maximum, and granule size with 90% between 2 and 4 mm so it blends and spreads with urea and potash without segregating. Colour is a poor guide (DAP runs from off-white through grey to dark brown depending on the phosphate rock and the plant), but hardness and dust matter, because a soft granule breaks up in a hold and arrives as fines that cake. The hidden numbers are cadmium and other heavy metals carried over from the rock, which several markets now cap, and biuret-free nitrogen is not an issue here as it is with urea. Ammonia loss on storage is real: DAP in a hot, damp warehouse loses nitrogen and gains a smell, so covered dry storage is part of the specification.

Buy DAP rather than MAP or TSP when the crop programme wants nitrogen alongside phosphate at planting, which is most cereal, oilseed and rice agriculture, and when the blend or the distributor's market is used to it; MAP is the choice for acid-sensitive blends and alkaline soils, TSP where nitrogen is not wanted. The trade moves in Handysize and Supramax bulk parcels from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia and the United States into India, South Asia, Africa and Latin America, with bagged 50 kg and jumbo-bag business for distributors. CBIL brokers DAP against independent certification of N, total and water-soluble P₂O₅, moisture, size and, where the destination requires it, cadmium, in bulk, 50 kg PP bags and 1 MT jumbo bags, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.