Potash company achieves record production volume in H1

AMMAN — The Arab Potash Company (APC) announced it has achieved a record production of potash during the first half of 2018 that amounted to 1.2 million metric tonnes.

The APC noted that the production volume achieved during the first six months of this year is "unprecedented" and has never been recorded since 1982.

In a statement to The Jordan Times, APC directors were quoted as attributing the reason to the "collaborative efforts of the company's employees, the operational production plan and effective maintenance strategies”.

APC Production Director Abdulfattah Alamre said that the company produced around 1.1 million metric tonnes of potash during the first six months of 2017, adding that the volumes achieved during the first half of this year "broke the record figures achieved during the same period in 2011, when production reached around 1.4 million tonnes."

Alamre added that a plan is already in place to produce the same amount of potash during the second half of 2018 to close the year with a record production volume of around 2.4 million metric tonnes.  

The marketing efforts and the technical expertise of the APC's strategic partner, according to the directors, was also a major reason behind the "unprecedented production volume achieved".

Vice President of Operations Mohammad Abu Ghiyab said that the APC has succeeded in reducing production costs and has consequently enhanced its competitiveness and maintained its profitability without downsizing any of its operations or dismissing any employees as other international large companies did.

Abu Ghiyab explained that the APC has reduced its operational and maintenance costs through manufacturing some spare parts rather than importing them, contracting a local rather than international company to carry out maintenance operations and reducing overtime pay.

“The sustainability and efficiency of the APC’s machines and plants were among the major reasons that led to the record production record achieved,” said Muawyah Samhouri, APC maintenance director.

According to Safety and Quality Director Sameer Meqdadi, the APC has achieved a record low in “accident frequency rates”, adding that the company has completed five million work hours with no accidents since 2015.

On the company’s contributions to the national economy, Abu Ghiyab said that the APC and its subsidiaries and affiliates contribute around $800 million annually to the Kingdom’s Treasury, while its contributions to community under its corporate social responsibility policy stood at around JD44 million during the past five years.

APC’s net profit after taxes, provisions and mining royalties for frist quarter of 2018 reached JD25.7 million, according to a company statement in April. 

At the time, APC President Brent Heimann said the mining company and its subsidiary and affiliate companies boosted the Kingdom’s foreign currency reserves by $845 million in 2017.