Morocco is selling phosphates at between $45 and $55 a tonne - that is up to 25 per cent less than the price a year ago - according to phosphate industry sources in france. They said that purchase contracts for Moroccan phosphates made at the beginning of this year are bring arranged at the lower rates, usually for a period of six months.


A drop in the market price for Moroccan phosphates would reflect a sharp drop in world demand and growing competition from US phosphate exports. By the end of last year Moroccan phosphates had reportedly dropped to around $58 a tonne from the $68-a-tonne posted price announced by the Government in January 1975 (MEED 21:11:75). Morocco is the world’s biggest exporter of phosphates but ranks third in world production, behind the US and the Soviet Union. The French sources said US producers were now selling semi-finished phosphate products, particularly phosphoric acid, in Europe at a lower price than Morocco had been asking for unfinished phosphate rock.

MEED 30.1.76