His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday laid the cornerstone for a $625 million Jordanian-Indian project for the manufacturing of phosphoric acid that is expected to earn the Kingdom about $300 million in export revenues annually.
The project, located in the Governorate of Maan about 330 kilometres south of the capital, will start commercial operation in 2012, project managers said.
It will create 2,000 jobs in the construction phase and 800 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs when the plant goes operational, according to the owners.
At the ceremony to lay the cornerstone for the project, King Abdullah received a sample of Jordan's first yellow cake manufactured by the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC). It will be manufactured at a commercial level soon.
The Shidiya project is owned by the Jordan India Fertiliser Company (JIFCO), which is a joint venture between the JPMC and Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO), which is owned by 40,000 farmers' cooperative societies with a membership base of 50 million farmers in India.
The project entails constructing a plant for the production of sulphuric acid with a capacity of 4,500 metric tonnes per day (mtpd) and a phosphoric acid plant with a capacity of 1,500 mtpd, in addition to facilities.
"The project is part of a matrix of projects which the JPMC intends to realise by 2013 with investments exceeding $1.3 billion with the aim of modernising the present fertiliser plants and increasing their output by 350,000 tonnes annually,” JPMC Deputy Executive Director Mohammad Bader Khan said at the ceremony.
U.S. Awasthi, deputy chairman of JIFCO and IFFCO's CEO and managing director, said the project was conceived based on the “strong ties” between the JPMC and IFFCO.
"The joint venture is a strategic partnership between the JPMC and IFFCO wherein JPMC will be supplying around two million tonnes of rock phosphate to the project from nearby mines in Jordan, while IFFCO will be receiving a consistent supply of phosphoric acid to meet its needs in India," Awasthi said.
According to Awasthi, IFFCO has a capacity to produce about four million tonnes of urea and four million tonnes DAP/NPK fertilisers per year.
"The project will provide an assured supply of phosphate input to Indian agriculture for sustenance in food grain production," said Awasthi.
Bader Khan, who reviewed the company's plans for expansion and future projects, said these plans include the increase in the output of diammonium phosphate and phosphoric acid at the Fertilisers Industrial Complex in Aqaba. The $90 million project, which is still under construction, will be completed by the end of 2011 and will increase production of phosphoric acid annually by 100,000 tonnes and diammonium phosphate fertiliser by 350,000 tonnes per year.
Bader Khan also referred to another project to create a plant for the production of different phosphoric and potash fertilisers near the Wadi Al Abiad Phosphate Mine, to the north of Maan. The $80 million project, which will operate in partnership with Bahrain, Arab and local investors, is also expected to start production in 2011.
He also highlighted other schemes by the JPMC designed to increase production and improve infrastructure.