'Arab Potash achieves JD121m in profits in nine months'

AMMAN — The Arab Potash Company (APC) announced on Saturday that its net profit after taxes, provisions and royalties amounted to JD121 million during the first nine months of 2019, recording an increase of 36 per cent from the JD89 million generated during the same period of last year.

APC’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Jamal Al Sarayrah said in a press conference on Saturday that potash production and sales operating profits grow by 103 per cent by the end of the third quarter to reach JD111 million.

The chairman explained that the APC has also achieved record production and sales volumes of potash during the first nine months of 2019, reaching 1.88 million and 1.83 million tonnes respectively.

Sarayrah explained that the APC paid the Treasury a total of JD71 million in 2018 in royalties, taxes and dividends, expecting this year's contributions to grow by 58 per cent to reach JD112. 

"The company is also a major contributor to the foreign exchange reserves of the country. Together with its subsidiaries and partners, the APC has brought in $900 million worth of foreign reserves into the country for the first nine months of 2019."

The chairman also said that the company is working on expanding potash production and other fertiliser derivatives through several projects, adding that there are also feasibility studies for utilising the Fifa area at the southern end of the Dead Sea which will produce 500,000 tonnes of potash annually. The company is also embarking in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, on evaluating the reserves of potash in the Dead Sea's Lisan area.

On the company's corporate social responsibility, Sarayrah pointed out that the APC has spent a total of JD11.4 million until the end of the third quarter of this year on its various efforts and initiatives across the Kingdom, covering education, health, social services and infrastructure sectors. 

For his part, APC President and CEO Maen Nsour explained that the company has diversified its income through the sales of other Dead Sea's products in addition to potash, including bromine and specialty fertiliser potassium nitrate. "This has yielded in additional profit return of $22 per tonne."

Nsour also said that the company's board approved last week a ten-year strategic plan that entails strengthening the APC's infrastructure and enhancing the efficiency of its plants, expanding production and diversifying products and preparing for the next stages. (See full story)