The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a new patent to Morocco’s OCP SA for a “Method for manufacturing an ammonium phosphate fertilizer having low cadmium content.” Inventors were listed as Morocco’s Mehdi Khouloud, Abdelaali Kossir, and Kamal Samrane.
The patent comes as the European Union prepares for more restrictive cadmium limits on phosphate fertilizers (GM Jan. 11, 2019). Speaking to reporters in January 2019, Morocco’s Energy, Mines, and Sustainable Development Minister Aziz Rabbah, said the impact “will not be huge.” He added, “Enormous effort will be deployed to address E.U. concerns.”
According to a comment paper by OCP in 2016, a 60 mg/ kg P2O5 cadmium limit, which was adopted by the E.U., would likely exclude some 20 percent of current total E.U. imports of phosphate rock and fertilizer products (GM Oct. 7, 2016). Its own exports would be cut by at least 25 percent, and supplies from other North African countries would be similarly impacted, while supplies from Senegal and Togo would be almost entirely excluded, the producer said.
In a ratings report last October, Fitch Ratings said its understanding from OCP management was that the company was already able to fully comply with all aspects of the new regulations, which will start in 2022, saying OCP has been investing in developing cost-effective ways to address the changes while focusing on selective mining with lower cadmium content. Fitch believes OCP’s low production costs will be able to absorb any potential production cost increase without affecting the competiveness of its operations.
Russia’s PhosAgro, which reports low cadmium levels in its phosphates, has been very supportive of the new E.U. rules.