Fertiglobe weighs a USD 1.5 bn-plus phosphate fertilizer complex in Ain Sokhna

Fertiglobe is assessing a project that could make it the latest big name in Egypt’s push to turn more of its phosphate into fertilizer. The Adnoc-controlled fertilizer maker is studying a complex worth more than USD 1.5 bn in Ain Sokhna to produce diammonium phosphate (DAP), the Oil Ministry said in a statement after Minister Karim Badawi met Fertiglobe CEO Ahmed El Hoshy.

The plant would make 1.3 mn tonnes a year of DAP, one of the world’s most widely used fertilizers, made by reacting phosphoric acid with ammonia. Commercial production is targeted for 2031, depending on feasibility studies that El Hoshy says are underway with consultants and on securing a long-term supply of local phosphate rock, which he called key to completing the assessment. Fertiglobe is also looking at producing its own phosphoric acid and turning it into finished fertilizer at the same site, drawing on Egypt’s ammonia supply and existing industrial base, according to the statement.

Sokhna is familiar ground for Fertiglobe, which already runs two plants there: EBIC, which produces ammonia (one of the three inputs a DAP plant needs), and EFC, which makes urea and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), sold widely as AdBlue. Both units posted record-breaking performance in 1Q 2026, with EFC running at more than 105% of capacity.

Part of a bigger push

Fertiglobe would be joining a growing list. The government has been courting investors to process phosphate locally, sending it to “high-yield industries instead of exporting it as raw material,” as the Oil Ministry put it when contracts for the USD 658 mn Abu Tartour phosphoric acid complex were signed in 2025. Several big projects are already in motion,including the Abu Tartour phosphoric acid complex in New Valley, a greenfield phosphate fertilizer complex in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), Sokhna 360, an integrated complex in the Golden Triangle Economic Zone on the Red Sea coast, and a complex in Upper Egypt.

At 1.3 mn tonnes a year, Fertiglobe’s plant would be bigger than any of the Sokhna projects announced so far, by our math. Rock shouldn’t be the problem: Egypt holds some 2.8 bn tonnes of phosphate reserves and mined about 5.5 mn tonnes last year, according to the US Geological Survey (pdf).

Making the numbers work

Getting the plant right comes down to balancing three inputs (phosphate, sulfur and ammonia), Raid Al Soub, former secretary-general of the Arab Fertilizers Association, tells EnterpriseAM. The grade of the rock and how easily it processes set the cost base, he says. Sulfur, which is burned to make the sulfuric acid that turns rock into phosphoric acid, is where the plant is most exposed to the market. A plant this size would need some 500k tonnes of it a year on the conventional route, which leaves it open to swings in sulfur prices, Al Soub says.

Ammonia is where Egypt has an edge, Al Soub says, and Fertiglobe already makes it nearby at EBIC. “But the challenge lies in the economics: will turning ammonia into DAP earn the company and the economy more than selling and exporting it directly,” he asks. Managing phosphogypsum (the main waste product of phosphate processing), water use and emissions will also shape both investment and running costs from day one, he adds.

Less exposed to gas cuts

There’s a strategic upside, too. Gas is the raw material for ammonia, and it makes up roughly 70% of the cost of producing nitrogen fertilizers like urea, which is why gas price hikes and supply cuts hit ammonia and urea makers so hard. A DAP line carries less of that risk: ammonia is its only gas-based input, and it accounts for a smaller share of the cost base, which leans more on phosphate rock and sulfur. That makes phosphate fertilizers comparatively cheaper to produce in Egypt even if gas prices climb or supplies tighten.

WHAT’S NEXT- Fertiglobe will work with the Mineral Resources Authority and mining bodies to identify rock sources and assess long-term supply. Both sides also agreed to speed up the exchange of technical, geological and commercial data and to prepare for ore supply agreements. Fertiglobe also pitched producing AdBlue from Egyptian urea, building on the DEF it already makes at EFC, and Badawi asked for a technical and economic evaluation before deciding next steps.