A 5-Billion-Dollar Phosphate Fertiliser Complex Is Planned for Safaga, With No Timetable or Investor Named

Egypt is preparing a major industrial project at Safaga with investment of around 5 billion dollars, to build an integrated complex producing phosphate fertilisers from locally mined phosphate ore, according to the Arabic outlets Akhbar Al-Ghad and Twasl News.

The complex is described as running the whole chain in one place. It would take phosphate ore through several manufacturing stages, from processing the raw rock through to finished fertilisers ready for use and for export, according to Akhbar Al-Ghad.

The stated purpose is to stop shipping the ore out raw. The report frames the project as a way to get more economic value out of Egypt's phosphate reserves by turning them into higher-value industrial products before they leave the country, and to add production capacity to the Egyptian fertiliser industry — lifting exports and opening new foreign markets while global demand for agricultural fertiliser holds up.

Safaga was picked for the raw material and for the port. Akhbar Al-Ghad says the area's location supports export movement and that the project would reinforce Safaga's standing as an industrial area built around the phosphate fertiliser industry.

What the reports do not carry is most of what a resident would want to know: no timetable, no start date, no named company or investor, no site within Safaga, no job figures and no mention of environmental assessment. Nor is any government body named as the one driving it.

Hurghada News reported on 3 October that seven industrial zones have been mapped from Qena out to Safaga and El Quseir. A 5-billion-dollar fertiliser complex would be far the largest single industrial commitment yet named for this stretch of coast — but for now it is an announced intention with no paperwork attached to it in public.