Lower prices cut first-half net profits at Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JMPC), one of the world’s largest phosphate suppliers, by nearly half, the company said on Sunday. Second-quarter net profit fell 32 per cent to JD24.6 million.
A company source said lower prices and higher production costs reduced profit margins despite steady demand in India and Japan and Asian markets, the group’s main markets.
JMPC said net sales from its exports of fertilisers and phosphate fell a slight 1.6 per cent to JD248.45 million in the first six months of 2010 from JD252.6 million in the same period last year.
Total assets stood at JD615 million on June 30, rising from JD574.3 million at end of 2009.
JPMC, which has joint ventures with Indian and Japanese firms with diversified downstream fertiliser operations, depends mainly on Shidiyah mine, in southern Jordan.
JPMC produces about six million tonnes of rock phosphate annually. It exports some and uses the rest at its fertiliser complex in Aqaba, which produces 320,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid, 630,000 tonnes of di-ammonium phosphate and 10,000 tonnes of aluminium fluoride annually.
JPMC saw its net sales from exports of fertilisers and phosphate fall a sharp 46 per cent in 2009 to JD458 million. It attributed a sharp 61 per cent drop in 2009 net profit to lower global prices and weaker demand.
Last year’s phosphate prices fell by almost half from 2008 levels as the global recession took hold.
