Cairo—Indian trading and consultancy firm Sun Group is looking to set up a phosphate fertilizer plant in Egypt, according to Indian media reports, citing a statement by Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil. The plant, to be established in cooperation with Egypt’s Phosphate Misr Co. and other local companies, will contribute to increasing Egyptian phosphate production and boost local market share of exports to global markets, Kabil said in the statement. Phosphate Misr operates one of Egypt’s largest phosphate rock mines, the Abu Tartour mine, 650 km south of Cairo. The proposed $40 million project would be located in the El-Seba’eia area of Aswan, but few other details are known. According to the minister’s statement, the parties hope to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the project soon to enable work to start this year. The Sun Group’s flagship company, Dubai-based Sun International, handles around 2.5 million mt/y of products, mainly finished fertilizers and fertilizer raw materials, according to its website, and regularly sources phosphate rock from Phosphate Misr. Phosphate Misr in August last year signed an MOU with a consortium of Chinese companies to build a phosphoric acid plant utilizing Abu Tartour phosphate rock. According to local media reports, citing Phosphate Misr Chairman Khaled El-Ghazali, the output would be used to produce phosphate cement.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain