OCP to expand phosphate capacity

Rabat, Morocco-Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP) plans to spend $7 billion over the next seven years to expand its phosphate operations, according to reports from the Global Arab Network and Reuters, citing a statement from OCP. The expansion would reportedly include four identical DAP and MAP plants, each with the capacity of 1 million mt/y. They would be built in six-month intervals from July 2013 to July 2015 at OCP’s Jorf Lasfar phosphate hub. The initiative would expand OCP’s current DAP/MAP production from 3 million mt/y to more than 9 million mt/y, a move that would make OCP the world’s largest supplier of phosphate rock, phosphoric acid, and DAP/MAP. Mining capacity would move from 30 million to 50 million mt/y and beneficiation from 9 to 38 million mt/y, with the port facility at Jorf Lasfar expanded to handle up to 35 million mt.