Saudi Arabia's mining company has signed four preliminary agreements with Indian companies to boost exports of phosphate products and ammonia to Asia's third-largest economy amid strengthening ties between the two countries. Ma'aden said the deals were made with different companies to double Ma'aden's exports of phosphate products and ammonia to India from 2023, and planned to explore product and technology development collaborations for phosphate fertilizers.

As part of the deal, the company will supply phosphate products to Indian Potash Corporation and ammonia to Gujarat Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation. It has also signed two separate agreements with Krishak Bharati Co-operative Company and Coromandel International to supply phosphate products and ammonia, and explore collaborations in multiple growth areas and seek joint development of specialty product technologies, product development, agronomy and logistics solutions.

India is the world's largest import market for phosphates and ammonia, and demand is growing steadily, said Ma'aden chief executive Robert Wilt. As India's largest phosphate fertilizer supplier, India is a strategically important market for Ma'aden. Our goal is to continue investing to strengthen our relationship with Indian companies. These new agreements help expand our role in global food security and help strengthen the long-term relationship between Saudi Arabia and India.

The deals come as Saudi Arabia continues to boost its non-oil trade as part of its continued efforts to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons. According to the General Statistics Office, Saudi non-oil exports will grow by 31% annually to $23 billion in the second quarter of 2022.

China remains Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner with 63.4 billion riyals in exports, followed by India and Japan with 43.5 billion riyals and 39.1 billion riyals, respectively. We first started exporting fertilizers to India in 2011 and today we export around 1.7 million tonnes of phosphate products and ammonia to the Indian market each year, Mr Wilt said. In May 2020, we opened our first office in India to strengthen our commitment to India and get closer to our customers.

Ma'aden, which went public in 2008 and is majority-owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, is key to Riyadh's diversification strategy. Expansion of industry and mining is an important part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan. Keywords: engineering news, overseas news

Ma'aden's mine-to-market phosphate business includes two large plants in Saudi Arabia, Wa'ad Al Shamal Industrial Mineral City in the Northern Frontier Province and Ras Al Khair Industrial City on the east coast of the kingdom. The company is also developing a third large-scale phosphate fertilizer project, named Phosphate3, which aims to increase the company's phosphate fertilizer supply capacity by 3 million tons to 9 million tons in the next few years. Ma'aden also signed an agreement in 2022 to build the world's largest solar steam plant, which will be used to refine bauxite into alumina, as part of its expansion strategy.Editor/XingWentao