Phosphate & derivatives
The flagship line
Rock phosphate from 60 to 72% BPL, and the chain that follows it. This is our deepest line, and where the specification discipline that governs the rest of the book was built.
| Grade | BPL | P₂O₅ | Principal use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Export high grade | 70–72% | 32.0–33.0% | Phosphoric acid, DAP/MAP feedstock |
| Export standard | 68–70% | 31.1–32.0% | DAP/MAP, TSP |
| Merchant grade | 65–68% | 29.7–31.1% | SSP, blending, feed phosphates |
| Direct application | 60–65% | 27.5–29.7% | Direct-application agriculture, organic systems |
BPL (Bone Phosphate of Lime) and P₂O₅ describe the same phosphorus content on two scales: BPL = P₂O₅ × 2.1853. Contracts are commonly written on BPL in the Middle East and South Asia and on P₂O₅ in Europe. We will contract on either.
Downstream
The chain we take the rock through.
Rock is the start of the line rather than the end of it. Our downstream programme carries phosphate through acidulation and granulation into the products a fertilizer producer, blender, feed compounder or battery-materials plant actually buys.
| Product | Grade basis | Application |
|---|---|---|
| Phosphoric acid | Wet process, 52–54% P₂O₅ | Fertilizer production, industrial phosphates |
| DAP | 18-46-0 | Blenders, distributors, state procurement |
| MAP | 11-52-0 | Blenders, distributors, fertigation |
| TSP | 0-46-0 | Distributors, direct application |
| SSP | 0-16-0 to 0-20-0 | Regional blenders, soil conditioning |
| Feed phosphates | MCP / DCP | Animal feed compounders |
| Purified phosphoric acid | Battery and technical grade | LFP cathode material, industrial phosphates |
Grades are written to the buyer's specification. Indicative availability across the phosphate line runs to 2.5 million MT a year; talk to us about volumes, timing and delivery basis for any product on this list.
Battery technology
The fastest-growing call on phosphate is not agricultural.
Lithium iron phosphate — LFP — has become the dominant chemistry in electric vehicles and grid storage, and every tonne of it starts as phosphate rock. The route runs from rock to wet-process acid to purified phosphoric acid, and from there into iron phosphate and finished cathode material.
Low-impurity rock
Purification economics are set at the mine. Iron, aluminium and magnesium carried into the acid are removed at cost, so a low MER rock is worth more to a purifier than the BPL figure alone suggests. Our export high grade is specified with that buyer in view.
Purified phosphoric acid
The bridge between fertilizer-grade chemistry and battery-grade chemistry. We supply technical and battery-grade PPA through the downstream programme, to the impurity profile the cathode producer specifies rather than to a generic trade grade.
A supply plan, not a spot cargo
Cathode plants qualify a source and then hold it. We contract on multi-year schedules with the analytical consistency that qualification requires, and we hold the same rock behind it for the life of the agreement.
Beyond the headline grade
The numbers that govern acceptance.
A BPL figure on its own does not tell a buyer whether the cargo will run in their plant, or whether it will clear customs at the destination. We publish tolerances on the three process parameters below, on cadmium, and on fluorine, chlorides and moisture.
Phosphorus pentoxide
The headline number and the basis for the price adjustment clause in most contracts.
Calcium ratio
Governs sulphuric acid consumption in wet-process plants. A ratio inside the contracted band holds a producer's variable cost per tonne of acid where they modelled it.
Minor element ratio
(Fe₂O₃ + Al₂O₃ + MgO) ÷ P₂O₅. Governs sludge, scaling and filterability. Buyers with fixed plant configurations specify it as tightly as they specify P₂O₅.
Cadmium
The parameter that decides which markets a cargo can enter.
Cadmium occurs naturally in sedimentary phosphate and is regulated at the destination rather than at the mine. It is the first thing a European buyer checks, and increasingly the first thing a buyer in India or Southeast Asia checks too. Every Phosphex Certificate of Analysis declares cadmium in mg/kg P₂O₅ — the basis regulators write in — so the result can be read straight against the limit that applies. Where a destination limit is tighter than the general one, we contract to the tighter figure and select the origin that meets it.
| Market | Limit | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| European Union | 60 | Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 — the EU-wide ceiling |
| Hungary, Slovakia | 20 | National limit |
| Finland | 22 | National limit |
| Netherlands | 31.3 | National limit |
| France | 40 / 20 | 40 from 1 January 2027; 20 from 1 January 2030 |
| Sweden | 44 | National limit |
| Denmark | 48 | National limit |
| Czechia, Germany, Poland, Italy | 50 | National limit |
A single EU ceiling is the exception rather than the rule — member states may and do apply lower national limits, and France has legislated a stepped reduction. Figures are given for orientation and are current at the date of publication; the limit that binds a shipment is the one in force in the destination market on the date of import. Outside Europe, India, Malaysia and other destination markets set their own contaminant requirements, and we write the cargo to whichever applies.
Presentation and shipment
How the material moves.
Bulk vessel is the default for rock. Granulated product ships bagged more often than not, and the bagging specification is written into the contract.
- Form
- Washed and dried rock, bulk. Sized and ground available against specification.
- Moisture
- ≤ 3.0% at load, contracted. Free moisture on discharge subject to standard trade allowances.
- Shipment
- Bulk vessel, typical parcel 45,000–55,000 MT.
- Bagging
- 50 kg bags or 1,000 kg jumbo bags on request.
- Terms
- FOB, CFR, CIF.
- Inspection
- SGS or equivalent at load port, at seller's cost unless otherwise agreed.
Every grade is available as a full specification sheet.
Complete parameter tables, tolerances and a specimen Certificate of Analysis — all downloadable.