For anyone who noticed their potash stocks shine today...looks like it was due to a 5% price increase for the fertilizer. Anyone remember end of 09 china potash lowball contract for $350/ton....new agreement for 2010 in asia now reached $410! Only a matter of time before phosphate tags along also:

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(from Bloomberg in case anyone missed it):

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Belarusian Potash Co., the distributor for Russian and Belarusian producers, said it has raised prices to benefit from a recovery in demand.

Standard muriate of potash, or MOP, increased by $25 a metric ton, bringing the price in Asia to $410 on a cost and freight basis, BPC, half-owned by Russia’s OAO Uralkali, said in an e-mailed statement today. The granular form will cost at least $425 in Asia and Brazil, it said.

“Global demand for potash is hardening, and we expect prices will continue to rise,” BPC’s head of sales Oleg Petrov said by e-mail. “We are seeing a strong return of confidence to the market and the outlook remains very positive.”

Chinese demand helped spur increased shipments in the first quarter, according to Mikhail Stiskin, an analyst at investment bank Troika Dialog. There has also been a “huge” surge in demand from Brazil, Europe, and some Asian markets since BPC agreed on a sale to China in December, Fertilizer Monthly Bulletin reported yesterday. That $350-a-ton deal set the price floor, analysts said. Prices for potash exceeded $1,000 a ton in some regions in the fall of 2008.

“The low Chinese settlement was a necessary evil that allowed producers to unfreeze the paralyzed market,” Stiskin wrote in a note to clients.

China’s return to the market with the purchase from BPC has added to speculation that farmers around the world will resume orders. Potash is a crop nutrient used to revitalize soils.

Compass Minerals on Feb. 2 raised prices for all sulfate of potash specialty fertilizer products by $30 a short ton. K+S AG, Europe’s biggest potash producer, on Jan. 8 said it will increase potash prices to at least 285 euros ($400) per metric ton after February.

“Wholesalers are stocking up, although it’s unclear yet how much farmers will really order,” said K+S spokesman Michael Wudonig. “We see a very good chance that prices have now found a bottom.”