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Harish Damodaran

New Delhi, Sept. 20

Morocco’s OCP Group, supplier of phosphate fertiliser raw materials, says it is open to Indian companies setting up 100 per cent-owned phosphoric acid manufacturing facilities in the country.

Currently, Tata Chemicals and the K.K. Birla Group’s Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd, operate a 4,30,000 tonnes an annum (tpa) phosphoric acid joint venture (JV) with OCP at Morocco’s Jorf Lasfar industrial hub.

The three have an equal one-third stake in this entity, Indo Maroc Phosphore SA (IMACID).

OCP further has a 50:50 JV in India with another K.K. Birla Group company, Zuari Industries Ltd.

The JV – Zuari Maroc Phosphates Ltd (ZMPL) – holds 80.45 per cent in Paradeep Phosphates Ltd, which has a 7,20,000-tpa di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) unit in Orissa.

“We are open to both options – allowing 100 per cent Indian-owned phosphoric acid manufacturing ventures in Morocco as well as establishing new phosphoric acid/DAP plants in India either on our own or on the ZMPL model,” Mr Mohammed Belmahi, Adviser to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the $-7.9 billion OCP Group, told Business Line here. “It is a significant statement because in all our existing overseas phosphoric acid ventures, the countries concerned have insisted on taking a local partner.

The relaxation of the JV conditionality by Morocco – which others too might emulate – will certainly encourage more such Indian investments abroad”, a fertiliser industry source pointed out.

IMACID apart, there are three other phosphoric acid JVs involving Indian companies: the 6,60,000-tpa Industries Chimiques du Senegal (ICS) at Darou (Senegal), the 7,20,000-tpa Foskor (Proprietary) Ltd at Richards Bay (South Africa) and the 2,24,000-tpa Indo Jordan Chemicals Company (IJCC) at Eshidiya (Jordan).

While Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation has a 52 per cent stake in IJCC, the Indian shareholding is only 19 per cent (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative plus Government of India) in ICS and 15 per cent (Coromandel Fertilisers Ltd) in Foskor.

In addition, Coromandel Fertilisers and Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd own 15 per cent each in Tunisian Indian Fertilisers SA, whose 3,60,000-tpa phosphoric acid plant is slated for commissioning by early 2011.

Phosphoric acid is the key intermediate for manufacture of DAP, the most widely used fertiliser in India after urea.

Phosphoric acid, in turn, is derived from rock phosphate.

India annually imports 5.2 mt to 5.3 million tonnes (mt) of rock phosphate and 2.2 mt to 2.3 mt of phosphoric acid. Rock is largely sourced from Jordan (2.5 mt), Morocco (1.1-1.2 mt) and assorted countries such as Egypt, Algeria and Togo.

The major suppliers of phosphoric acid are Morocco (one mt), South Africa (0.5 mt), Tunisia (0.3 mt), Senegal (0.2 mt), and Jordan and US (0.15 to 0.2 mt each)

“We don’t mind Indian companies having wholly-owned phosphoric acid facilities in Morocco, so long as they do not get into mining of rock phosphate. Mining and export of rock will remain an exclusive OCP monopoly,” said Mr Belmahi.

The Moroccan state-owned company claims to have the world’s largest reserves of high-quality phosphates.

More Stories on : Corporate | Fertilisers | Overseas Investments

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