OCP to support Malawi’s push to build its first fertilizer plant

Morocco’s OCP Group is helping Malawi build its first-ever fertilizer plant, aiming to have it running before the 2027-2028 growing season, Morocco World News reports. OCP Africa’s team is already running planning workshops with Malawian officials, though the project’s location and final output capacity are still unannounced.

An agriculture-dependent economy that imports all of its fertilizers needs from abroad, Malawi critically needs to get this project up and running. With the agricultural sector contributing some 30% to the GDP and over 80% of its exports revenues, cutting fertilizers import bill would help the country keep some of the upside of its agricultural exports.

OCP is very active in Africa, with fertilizer blending units across more than a dozen African markets. The world’s largest phosphate miner and fertilizer producer has previously announced advanced processing plants in Nigeria and Ethiopia — but the two mega projects have faced a series of delays and none is operational.

Landing in Kenya, at last

DP World agreed with Kenyan investment firm GulfCap Africa to develop a 222-hectare special economic zone less than 20 km from the Port of Mombasa, according to a press release. The Mombasa Industrial Park will roll out in phases, starting with 40 hectares.

Why now: DP World has spent years trying to get a concession to run berths at the Mombasa port. A 2023 tender would have handed it four berths and a 1 mn-TEU terminal, but a community legal challenge halted the process. The case was settled in 2024 and Kenya revived the concession push in 2025 with Japanese and Chinese financiers circling — but DP World hasn't publicly re-entered the bid.

Another autonomous mobility venture in Dubai

Dubai is putting a joint venture behind its autonomous-logistics ambitions. SHIFFT — a new tie-up between the Dubai Future Foundation and UK self-driving firm Oxa — is targeting a first commercial rollout of driverless vehicles across the emirate's ports and airports before the end of 2027, according to a press release.

Autonomous logistics is gaining traction in the UAE: The UAE made early moves on the rollout of autonomous mobility, with several pilots going live over the last two years. Autonomous trucks are already in operation in controlled freezones like Jafza, Kezad, and DWC, and new regulations recently providing clarity on passenger-focused autonomous mobility, helping a few players move toward commercial launches of robotaxis and eVTOLs .

Going through

Opec+ greenlit the anticipated additional hike of 188k bbl / d for September, marking the bloc’s sixth consecutive monthly increase and fully rolling back the 1.65 mn bbl / d in voluntary cuts agreed upon in 2023, according to a statement. The decision mirrors identical quota increases for August, July, and June, which followed an oil output boost of 206k bbl / d for May.

Russia and Saudi Arabia will lead the hike, contributing 62k bbl / d each. Iraq will also get a 26k bbl / d rise, followed by Kuwait at 16k bbl / d, with Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman each getting a hike of 10k bbl / d or below.

REMEMBER- Despite rising quotas over the last months, Opec+’s actual output trails the proclaimed hikes, and has yet to fully recover from war-related export disruptions, with May production dropping m-o-m to 33.1 mn bbl / d — well below pre-war levels of 42.7 mn — before starting a gradual recovery in June.