N-P-K World

Israel’s ICL have signed last September a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the privately owned Vietnamese company Duc Giang, a manufacturer of thermal phosphoric acid (P4). Their aim is phosphate mining and beneficiation in the Bao Thang province in Vietnam. Israel Chemicals was seriously shaken this year after Potash Corp. scrapped a proposed takeover in April and as Uralkali said July 30 it would end the Belarusian joint venture, raising concern of a price war on the potash markets. Last year, ICL had his third consecutive year of growth, with US$7.22 billion in sales. To put this figure in perspective, we can compare it with the US$1.33 billion sales of the Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Company for the year ending December of 2012.

Casablanca-based OCP (Office Cherifien des Phosphates), the largest phosphate exporter, has currently a market share of 16% of the global demand for phosphate-based fertilizers and they are planning to increase it to 40% by 2020. At the beginning of the current decade, the world demand was approximately 39 million tones P2O5 and it is forecasted to increase to about 45-48 million tones in 2020. The state-owned OCP plans to triple their production capacity. Currently they have 150 clients in five continents. To meet their production goals, the OCP plans to oversee the construction of four new mines in Khouribga and Benguérir, expected to provide an additional capacity of 20m tonnes of phosphate rock per year. Work is also underway in expanding their logistic capacities and developing new industrial infrastructure at the phosphate hub of Jorf Lasfar, including phosphate washing and enrichment plants.