AMMON: Deals signed in recent months that have the potential to reinvigorate Jordan’s phosphate exports could bring a new source of growth to its manufacturing sector, following a year of mixed results.
In mid-March the country’s sole phosphate producer, state-owned Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC), announced a sales contract with a group of Indian firms to provide 5.2m tons of phosphate ore – a raw material used in the production of fertilizer – in 2017.
Though its value has yet to be made public, the deal stipulates that sales prices will be set in line with prevailing global market conditions.
The agreement builds on existing trade relations between the two countries. In 2015 Jordan inaugurated an $860m sulphuric acid plant at Eshidiya, 325 km outside of Amman, through a joint venture between JPMC and the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative partly aimed at helping meet India’s growing demand for phosphate.
Further good news for the industry came in February, when JPMC signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Bangladesh to export 270,000 tons of phosphate and phosphoric acid over three years – a deal valued at $280m. The agreement revives a partnership between the two nations, with JPMC having been the chief supplier of fertilizer to Bangladesh in the past.
Under the terms of the agreement, JPMC will supply the country with 150,000 tons of rock phosphate and 120,000 tons of phosphoric acid. According to government figures, Bangladesh already imports 150,000 tons of rock phosphate from Jordan.
Jordan is also exploring the possibility of exporting diammonium phosphate, the most widely used phosphate fertilizer, to the country.
