The OCP Group is making its return to the international financial market. This is the first time that the global phosphate fertilizer giant has announced its strategic development plan for 2023-2027, which aims to rely exclusively on renewable energy sources to power its industrial processes.
The group led by Mustafa Terrab has launched a funding round with international investors to raise $2 billion in bonds and finance its development plans, » Reuters reported, citing sources close to the company.
OCP Group’s new plan will transform Morocco by introducing new industries such as desalination plants, green hydrogen and ammonia plants and a vast network of new mines and production facilities, supported by an extensive network of farms sustainable energy.
Behind the bond issue are the excessive expenses that the Moroccan company had to bear due to the rise in raw material prices caused by the war in Ukraine. To avoid supply problems, the company signed a contract with the American company Koch Industries to purchase ammonia in North America.
The Moroccan group would have entrusted the management of the operation to BNP Paribas, Citi and JP Morgan. The OCP Group’s last entry into the bond market dates back to 2021, with a volume of 1.5 billion dollars. The OCP Group’s new green investment program (2023-2027) is based on increasing fertilizer production capacities and a commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 thanks to unique renewable energy sources that contain.
Consolidating OCP’s global presence, the program plans a global investment of approximately $13 billion, reaching a level of local integration of 70%, support 600 Moroccan industrial companies and create 25,000 direct and indirect jobs.
As part of its commitment to clean energy, the OCP Group has set itself the objective of providing green energy to all its industrial units by 2027, by exploiting the potential of wind and solar energy sources. , hydraulic and thermal.
In addition to this investment plan, it aims to eliminate the group’s dependence on imports of ammonia, a key raw material for the production of fertilizers, since OCP plans to use green hydrogen to meet its demand for ammonia. OCP has also committed to producing 200,000 tonnes of green ammonia by 2026 and has an ambitious target of 1 million tonnes over the next four years.
The phosphate giant plans to further increase its production to 3 million tonnes by 2032. This ambitious plan is in line with the OCP Group’s commitment to use 100% green ammonia in its products.
Another key objective of the OCP Group’s new green investment strategy is to directly respond to Morocco’s main challenges.
The country faces severe water shortages and periodic droughts and imports 90% of its energy needs. These two structural weaknesses pose significant risks to the country and constitute a key element of the OCP Group’s large-scale investment plans.
Morocco’s current water crisis not only threatens the local population, agriculture and nature; This is a pressing problem for the production of phosphate fertilizer, Morocco’s most valuable export, which requires a lot of water.
Water is essential for transporting mined phosphate rock, producing phosphoric acid and is an essential component of a variety of other elements to produce the fertilizers that farmers around the world need to feed the world’s growing population.
OCP’s new investment plan constitutes an important contribution to Morocco’s efforts to reduce the trade deficit, create new jobs for future generations, strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem and reduce dependence on chemicals and to foreign fossil fuels. As the OCP is aligned with the government’s ambitions, the cluster has funding, support and detailed plans for the next five years.
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