Global Arab Network | 40% cost reduction - Morocco Phosphates Company improves productivity

Translate this article to your language:

GANPublications

e-Publications

Add Site to Favorites

Add Page to Favorites

Make Homepage

Share This Page

RSS Feed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |

40% cost reduction - Morocco Phosphates Company improves productivity

- Rabih Serrai

Sunday, 09 May 2010 17:32

Morocco's state phosphates company (Office Chérifien des Phosphates - OCP) forecasts to slash production costs by 30 to 40% to reach less 10 dollars per tonne, the company's director general Mostafa Terrab told Jeune Afrique magazine.

"Thanks to the enhancement of productivity, the use of new extraction techniques and the new processes of fertilizers' manufacturing, we are planning to reduce the production costs by 30 to 40% to reach less than 10 dollars per tonne," he said.

The company devised a new strategy aimed at boosting its production capacity in the fields of mining and fertilizers, he said, adding that the group's phosphate extraction capacity will jump, within seven years, from 30 to 50 million tonnes per year.

The OCP group is the world's leading exporter of phosphates and by-products.

France is lending Morocco's state phosphates company 240 million euros to help finance a pipeline project, the firm said on Tuesday.

The slurry pipeline will carry phosphates from Morocco's central mining region of Khouribga to the Jorf Lasfar industrial and port complex on the Atlantic coast, Office Cherifien des Phosphates said in a statement.

The OCP said the deal was signed in Paris by its chief executive, Mostafa Terrab, and the interim head of the French development finance agency, Jean-Michel Debrat.

OCP plans to invest 6.3 billion euros until 2020 to boost raw phosphate production to 47 million tonnes from 28 million and meet fast-growing demand for the mineral, which is used as making fertiliser.

A lot of the demand is coming from countries such as China, India and Brazil, where growing populations and economic growth have led to more use of fertilisers to boost food output.

OCP plans to process four-fifths of its mined phosphate within Morocco to squeeze the maximum value out of the north African kingdom's most abundant natural resource.

Morocco is the world's third-largest producer of phosphates (after the United States and China), and the price fluctuations of phosphates on the international market greatly influence Morocco's economy.

Additionally, phosphates production, which accounted for more than a third of exports, is being restructured for greater value.

Global Arab Network

Add comment

The opinions of the authors in articles published are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Global Arab Network
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published comments are the opinions of private individuals and do not reflect the views of Global Arab Network