(Adds details, background)
By Andrei Makhovsky
MINSK, July 11 (Reuters) - The Belarussian businessman who
last week acquired a 20 percent stake in Russian potash producer
Uralkali said on Monday it would be in everyone's interest to
restore an alliance between Uralkali and Belarus, the world's
two biggest potash miners.
Uralkali and the Belarussian Potash Company (BPC) used to
cooperate with each other, helping to manage supplies and
underpin prices. This arrangement broke down in 2013, triggering
a fall in world potash prices.
Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group sold
its 20 percent stake in Uralkali to Belarusian businessman
Dmitri Lobyak last week.
Speaking by phone to Reuters, Lobyak said "Everyone has a
desire (to restore the alliance between Uralkali and BPC). This
would be in everyone's interest."
The share deal does not automatically mean the alliance is
back on, because Lobyak does not control BPC, which is
state-owned, and he has only a minority stake in Uralkali.
In June, Belarus agreed to sell potash to India at the
lowest price in a decade and about a third less than last year's
level as global supplies of the crop nutrient exceed demand.
At the time, Uralkali said that the price offered by Minsk
was too low, while the managing director of Indian Potash
Limited, the country's biggest importer, said he expected other
potash miners to offer decade-low price after that deal.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said last month that
his country might cooperate with Uralkali again.