Phosphorus Ore Resource Draws Wide Attention

China Agriculture Investment Bimonthly Report is a bimonthly newsletter that CCM newly-released recently. The newsletter indicates that phosphorus ore resource draws phosphate fertilizer producers' wide attention.

With the exhausting phosphorus ore resource, phosphate fertilizer producers are to acquire phosphorus ore resource to sustain long-term development, driven by the strict entry criteria for phosphate and ammonium production.

China is the second largest phosphorus ore reserves country in the world, only next to Morocco. Among the proven phosphorus ore reserves of 16.786 billion tonnes, only about 4.1 billion tonnes with actual economic value can be exploited technically in China, capturing 24% of the total reserves. In addition, only 52% of China's phosphorus ore reserves with actual economic value can be exploited under current technology.

China exploited 68.07 million tonnes of phosphorus ore in 2010, increasing by 18.5% over last year, but China totally consumed 67.17 million tonnes of phosphorus ore in the same year, soaring by 17.2% year on year.

Driven by the soaring demand and exhausting resource, phosphorus ore price has seen an uptrend with fluctuation during 2008 to 2010, which brought many risks to phosphate fertilizer producers. And only the phosphate fertilizer producers holding ample phosphorus ore resource can avoid the risk of phosphorus ore price fluctuation.

Besides being beneficial for long-term development, phosphorus ore resource is essential for factory removal and new entrants. On March 25, 2011, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) promulgated the exposure draft of the Entry Criteria for Phosphate and Ammonium Production (the Entry Criteria), which requires that the factories to remove and new entrants should have their own phosphorus ore and sulfur ore resources. According to the Entry

Criteria, in principle, the factories to remove and new entrants are not allowed to build new wet process phosphoric acid (WPA), monoammonium phosphate (MAP) and diammonium phosphate (DAP) projects or expansions within three years.

Besides, if the existing compound fertilizer production plants are located in county-level ecological protection areas, scenic areas, nature reserves, cultural heritage protection areas, etc., they have to relocate. By the end of 2010, there were 466 phosphate fertilizer producers in China, with the total production capacity of over 21.00 million tonnes per year and the output of 17.01 million tonnes (100%P2O5) in 2010; while the apparent consumption volume was only 14.75 million tonnes (100%P2O5). That is to say, China's phosphate fertilizer industry is facing overcapacity. The most important is that many phosphate fertilizer producers that have to relocate their plants have no phosphorus ore resource of their own. To sustain long-term development, phosphate fertilizer producers will pay more attention to phosphorus ore resource.

For more information about China Agriculture Investment Bimonthly Report, please feel free to contact us at econtact@cnchemicals.com.

 (Guangzhou China, September 27, 2011)

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