Morocco to Invest $7 Billion to Help Meet Global Phosphate Demand

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Increased demand for agricultural fertilizers is driving phosphate production expansion and development in Morocco. Moroccan company Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP) (Casablanca) is launching a program to construct four plants to expand its production of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and Monoammonium Phosphate (ADP). The four plants will have identical technical specifications, and each will have a production capacity of 1 million tons per year. The plants will be commissioned between July 2013 and July 2015 in six month intervals.

Holding 75% of the world's phosphate reserves, Morocco is the leading global exporter of phosphate and phosphoric acid, holding up to 30% of the world market. The country is also one the largest exporters of phosphate-based fertilizers. The new expansion program will increase the country's capacity to produce DAP and ADP from the current 3 million tons per year to 9 million tons per year, consolidating its position as the leading exporter of phosphate-based products.

This building program is part of a larger investment plan that targets an increase in phosphate-mining capacity from 30 million tons per year to 50 million tons per year and to increase the income-enhancing beneficiation capacity from 9 million tons per year to 38 million tons per year. The company's Jorf Phosphate Hub is in the Port of Jorf Lasfar, and the plan will include expansion of port capacity to 35 million tons per year of products. The Jorf platform infrastructure will be supplied with rock phosphate from a new slurry pipeline that will be commissioned in the first quarter of 2013. The 192-kilometer Khourigba-Jorf Lascar pipeline system was designed by Pipeline Systems Incorporated (Concord, California) and will be the world's largest phosphate-transportation system, serving multiple mines. Jacobs Engineering Group Incorporated (NYSE:JEC) (Pasadena, California) is acting as consultant on the project.

The total expansion and building program will see $7 billion invested over a period of seven years. Targeting a capacity of 44 million tons per year, it is anticipated that the expansion project will drive down mine-to-port transport costs, lower energy consumption, and decrease the environmental impact from transport emissions and routing.

Earlier this year, French bank Credit Agricole de France (Paris) made a $500 million loan to OCP to assist in the purchasing of equipment, goods and services to anchor the development strategy.

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