Beirut (APD) - The Office Cherifien des Phosphates (Groupe OCP), the largest industrial organization in Morocco, announced that it will invest $1.2 billion together with foreign partners to increase its exports of phosphates to $2.5 billion by 2008. The group has an overall target to increase its production by 4% annually until 2010.
This implies that the company wants to increase its share of world phosphate production to 32% by 2010, according to Mourad Cherif, director general of Groupe OCP.
Cherif said that the company has been the world's top exporter of phosphate since overtaking the United States in production of the mineral in 1997.
Groupe OCP is in negotiations with Brazil-based Bunge Group to sign a partnership agreement involving initial investments of $260 million for production of 375,000 tons of phosphoric acid and 600,000 tons of fertilizers per year as of 2008.
Morocco holds about 75% of world phosphate reserves. As leading company in its field, Groupe OCP claims revenues of $1.6 billion per year, of which $165 million are generated from exports to Brazil. In 2004, these shipments represented over two thirds of all Brazilian imports from Morocco.
Production by Groupe OCP accounted for around 28% of Moroccan phosphate exports last year. The group employs 21,000 people and the value of its output constitutes around 3.5% of the country's Gross Domestic Product. [NI-TS]
APD (Arab Press Digest) 2005
