Morocco's phosphate heavyweight, OCP SA, is sounding out potential investors to buy into parts of the business, including a possible equity stake in Mzinda, a new fertilizer complex in central Morocco, scheduled to begin operations next year, a person familiar with the talks said. After supply snarls tied to the Iran war tightened flows through the Strait of Hormuz, sulfur prices jumped, putting pressure on Morocco's largest company by sales, OCP. Last month, OCP disclosed a loss for the first half and said it may suspend dividends this year. The person added the company will not seek fresh equity from the Moroccan government, which holds nearly 95% of the firm.
OCP controls more than two thirds of the world's phosphorus deposits, making its moves a global fertilizer story, not just a local one. The company's media team was not immediately available to comment.
Beyond Mzinda, OCP is also open to foreign equity in OCP Specialty Products and Solutions, or SPS, which handles non-fertilizer chemicals. SPS booked about $1 billion in revenue last year, with a large share coming from purified phosphoric acid used in electric vehicle batteries and in fluorine. The person said OCP may also invite outside investors into Uranext, an SPS unit that extracts uranium from phosphates.
To shore up finances, OCP formed a joint venture in July alongside Koch Ag & Energy Solutions that will put money into Jorf Fertilizers Co.
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With sulfur in short supply for phosphoric acid, OCP cut output in May and June by pulling forward maintenance that had originally been planned for the final two months of 2026, according to the person. It also ramped up production of TSP, a fertilizer that uses less sulfur and no ammonia, and is talking with trading houses including Bunge and Louis Dreyfus Co. to promote more TSP use in markets like Brazil and Argentina.
To trim reliance on Persian Gulf sulfur, OCP is seeking supplies from Spain, Canada, Kazakhstan and the US Gulf Coast. The company is also looking to purchase Chinese process equipment to recover sulfur from locally mined pyrites. As the world's largest sulfur buyer, OCP is targeting production of 1 million tons in 2027 and could scale to 4 million tons by 2030, enough to meet about half of current needs, the person said.
Freight is another lever. OCP is evaluating long term shipping contracts to replace spot purchases, targeting savings of up to 2 billion dirhams a year, equal to $203 million, after working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to model its shipping needs.
For everyday investors, the takeaway is simple: watch whether new partners actually show up and if these sourcing, technology and shipping shifts bring input costs back to earth. If they do, OCP's earnings picture could look different on the other side of this sulfur crunch.
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