Major Moroccan phosphates producer OCP Nutricrops has reported selling a 50pc stake in one of its production units to US trading firm Koch Ag & Energy Solutions.
The agreement will forge a 50:50 operating joint venture over the Jorf fertilizers company 1 (JFC 1) unit in Jorf Lasfar, which has a nameplate capacity of 1.2mn t/yr of phosphate-based fertilizers.
OCP says that this will bring the total production capacity under its joint ventures with Koch to 2.5mn t/yr following its sale of a 50pc stake in Jorf Fertilizers III — renamed Kofert — to Koch in March 2022.
The product from JFC will be marketed globally, but the agreement comes just weeks after the US suspended countervailing duties on imports of Moroccan phosphates for eight months. This has reopened the door to the US market for OCP.
JFC 1 is one of many production facilities which OCP operates at its Jorf Lasfar complex. Argus understands that OCP had broadly been operating at around 50pc of its total capacity over June, largely because of a lack of sulphur.
The producer is understood to now have enough sulphur to theoretically run at 100pc capacity over July-August. But since the conflict between Iran and the US has re-escalated, and Kazakh sulphur remains out of the market, maintaining sulphur stocks continues to be a challenge for all producers.
