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Indian companies are undertaking studies to establish phosphate production plants in Ain Sokhna and New Valley governorate, a top Indian government official has said.
Details will be announced as soon as the technical studies for these projects are completed, Indian Ambassador to Cairo Suresh K. Reddy told Al Arabiya.
India currently imports over 50 percent of its rock phosphate requirements, mainly from Jordan and Egypt, according to Indian media reports.
He said major Indian pharmaceutical companies want to make Egypt a manufacturing and export hub for Africa, without providing further details.
Indian investments in Egypt have reached $5 billion, primarily in sectors such as manufacturing, clean energy, and food processing.
In April, Singapore-headquartered Indorama Corporation signed a partnership agreement with Egypt’s state-owned Misr Phosphate to establish a phosphate fertiliser plant in the Sokhna Industrial Zone within Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone.
The first phase of the complex is expected to have an annual production capacity of 600,000 tonnes, backed by an investment of $525 million.
China-based Xingfa Group unveiled plans in January to invest $2 billion in an integrated project to explore, extract, and produce various high-quality phosphate products in Egypt.
Egypt is ranked the world’s 10th largest raw phosphate producer with 90 million tonnes of extractable ore, according to a local media report.
(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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