In the last year 2022, Morocco was able to produce 40 million tons of phosphates, thus ranking second in the world, following China, which produced almost 85 million tons.
Morocco, which has 50 billion tons of phosphate reserves, ranks first in the Arab world in the ranking of the American Institute of Geophysics ” US Geological Suvery“, while the Kingdom of Jordan is in second place with a production of 10 million tons, Saudi Arabia in third place with 9 million tons, Egypt in fourth place with 5 million tons, and Tunisia in fifth place. with 4 million tons.
Overall, the American organization indicates that the United States of America comes in third position in terms of production, following Morocco and ahead of Russia, which produced only 13 million tonnes of phosphate in 2022.
Also, the annual world production rate of phosphate is estimated at 240 million tons, and the estimates of economically extractable phosphate reserves in the world are 69 billion tons, while the potentially exploitable resources of phosphate rock are 300 billion. tons, says the same source.
In Morocco, the turnover of the OCP group amounted to more than 114.57 billion dirhams for the year 2022, recording an increase of 36% compared to 2021 which amounted to 84.3 billion. of dirhams.
In a press release, the main player in the field of fertilizers indicated that the number of transactions during the year 2022 had reached a record level represented by a total of 114.574 billion dirhams, benefiting from the increase in average prices compared to to the year 2021.
During the last quarter of 2022, the number of transactions reached 25.03 billion dirhams, compared to 26.65 billion dirhams during the last quarter of 2021 indicates the OCP. The same source attributed the slight decline to less favorable market conditions compared to the same period last year, which led to lower prices and demand.
In addition, OCP has invested around 20 billion dirhams, an increase of around 52% compared to 2021 when investments reached 13.1 billion dirhams.
This change in the group’s turnover is due to the rise in world prices for raw materials, which also affected the price of fertilizers. Supply chain disruptions, export restrictions and strong global demand, have also impacted the cost of fertilizer prices.
According to data from the Foreign Exchange Office, the prices of phosphate-related products rose from 4,775 dirhams per ton at the end of 2021 to 8,326 dirhams per ton at the end of last year, an increase of more than double.
Phosphate has been the Kingdom’s number one export sector for years, followed by the automotive sector, then the agricultural and food industries sector, all of which help support Morocco’s hard currency balance.
The OCP group has contributed to injecting 6.5 billion dirhams into the public treasury over the past year, exceeding the expectations of the government which was betting on 5.4 billion dirhams.
This year, the leading group in the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers, announced to inject 130 billion dirhams within the framework of a new investment program spread over the period 2023-2027, and plans to supply all of its industrial facilities in green energy by 2027.
