OCP SA, Casablanca, expects its planned ammonia plant in Nigeria to be operational by late 2023, according to a Reuters report, citing OCP Africa Fertilisers Nigeria’s Managing Director Mohamed Hettiti.
The plant will have capacity for 750,000 mt/y of ammonia and is being built at a reported cost of $1.3 billion in southeast Nigeria, where the Moroccan group already has identified gas suppliers, according to the report. Earlier reports suggested that OCP was considering a capacity of around 1 million mt/y (GM March 8, p. 1).
OCP and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in June 2018 to develop an industrial platform in Nigeria for the production of ammonia and related products (GM June 15, 2018).
Commenting on the plans this past January, Hettiti said some of the ammonia output would be exported to Morocco for OCP’s own use (GM Jan 18, p. 1). The Moroccan group currently imports all its ammonia requirements.
Some of the ammonia output from the new Nigeria plant also will be used to produce DAP at a new plant that OCP plans to build in the West African country. OCP would supply the phosphoric acid requirements from its Moroccan production facilities. The current status of this project is unclear.
Since establishing wholly-owned subsidiary OCP Africa SA with the aim of helping to meet the challenge of creating structured, efficient, and sustainable agriculture in Africa, OCP SA has since established at least 12 subsidiaries on the continent. Many of them are as joint ventures with local governments, including in Ethiopia, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Rwanda, and Tanzania, among other countries. Several of the jv’s include plans for the development of local production units.
In a separate development, the Moroccan group is reported to be planning to add four new fertilizer storage units in Brazil next year. The new warehouses will open in the states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, Pará, and Santa Catarina in 2020, according to a report by the Brazil-Arab news agency Agência de Notícias Brasil-Árabe (Anba), citing OCP’s CEO for Brazil Olavio Takenaka.
The group also has plans for further storage units in 2021, according to Takenaka.
It is understood that all of the phosphate sold by OCP in Brazil is imported from Morocco.
OCP has been active in Brazil since 2010, with operations in Paranaguá, Paraná state; Rio Grande and Itaqui in Rio Grande do Sul state; Rondonópolis in Mato Grosso state; and Aratu in Bahia state. It also has two offices in São Paulo.
The Moroccan group also holds a 10 percent stake in Viana, Espírito Santo state-based Fertilizantes Heringer SA, which filed for judicial reorganization in February (GM Feb. 8, p. 1). Russia’s Uralkali and Uralchem in September signed a binding letter of intent with Heringer’s controlling shareholder, which could ultimately give the two Russian companies control of Heringer (GM Sept. 27, p. 1).