Thuneibat Asserts JPMC's Role in Enhancing Kingdom's Mining Sector Investment Landscape

Muhammad Thuneibat, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Jordanian Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC), stressed that the company represents a noteworthy augmentation to the investment landscape of the Kingdom.

He emphasized its ability to catalyze burgeoning transformative industries, thus aiding industrialists.

Thuneibat underscored the company's status as a crucial economic pillar within the Kingdom. He highlighted JPMC's commitment to pivoting towards phosphate-related industries due to their strategic importance in income diversification, profit escalation, and potential job creation. The ripple effects of this pivot can be seen in the augmentation of the Kingdom's treasury revenues.

Thuneibat, in a panel discussion orchestrated by the Jordanian Businessmen Association, titled "The mining and manufacturing sector in Jordan and its role in achieving the economic modernization vision," articulated that JPMC is steadfastly committed to its development and modernization ethos.

He reassured stakeholders that the company will remain unwavering in this pursuit.

He drew attention to the company's policy and its resulting progressive transformations in production, sales, and profits. This has solidified its position as the eighth-ranked power-player among the Middle East's top ten industrial companies, and 71st among the region's 100 most influential companies in 2023.

Thuneibat took the audience through JPMC's journey from overcoming previous challenges to celebrating remarkable achievements. The company's financial turnaround was noteworthy, evolving from a 90 million dinar loss and a 440 million dinar debt in 2016 to an impressive net profit of 1.160 billion dinars over the past five years.

He shared details about JPMC's significant contribution to the Kingdom's treasury. The income tax paid last year totaled 226 million dinars, in comparison to 101 million dinars in 2021. This brings the total tax paid over the last five years to 369 million dinars, alongside 136 million dinars in mining royalties.

These encouraging outcomes are the result of an in-depth investigation into the company's previous performance, circumstances, and reasons for decline between 2010 and 2017. As a direct consequence, the company implemented corrective measures to enhance performance, rein in expenses, bolster production, and boost sales volume from 2018 to 2022.

Moreover, JPMC embarked on reestablishing lost markets and breaking into new ones globally. The company embraced transparency, accountability, institutionalization, regulatory compliance, and strengthened its relationship with labor unions, its fundamental partners.

Thuneibat accentuated JPMC's consistent efforts to transition towards manufacturing industries through strategic partnerships. In alignment with this endeavor, several memorandums of understanding and agreements were signed with Indian, Turkish, Indonesian, and other local companies.

The goal was to establish collaborative factories in Al-Shidiya and Aqaba, increase production capacity, and introduce new products and transformative industries.

In a move towards strengthening their phosphate and phosphate fertilizer investments, JPMC signed agreements with several Indian companies to expand imports from Jordan and to establish two phosphoric acid factories in Al-Shidiyah and Aqaba after a successful economic and technical feasibility study.

In collaboration with aTurkish company, JPMC plans to establish a joint phosphoric acid plant in the Al-Shidiyah area in Ma'an Governorate, with an annual production capacity of 165 thousand tons (P2O5).

Thuneibat highlighted the $85 million phosphate washing and flotation plant project in the Al-Shidiyah area, developed in cooperation with Ideal Advanced Manufacturing Company.

This initiative is expected to enrich the Kingdom's phosphate exports, stimulate the national economy, and generate annual profits for JPMC of no less than 150 million dinars. The project will also create approximately 250 direct jobs and at least 2,000 indirect jobs in areas such as transportation and logistics.

Thuneibat outlined JPMC's environmental projects, including the rehabilitation of the phosphate hills in the Rusaifa district. He emphasized that this project addresses the environmental consequences of mining operations in the region.

Thuneibat noted the company's dedication to social responsibility, mentioning its significant contributions in assisting public and private institutions, universities, schools, hospitals, and municipalities in the southern region to enhance services provided to citizens.

Thuneibat ended by reaffirming the company's commitment to actualizing the concept of social responsibility, aiming to transform it from rhetoric into tangible achievements that benefit citizens and contribute to comprehensive and sustainable development.

Thuneibat highlighted that the company's five-year strategy for 2023-2027 aligns seamlessly with the economic modernization vision by extending investments and initiating projects that resonate with this vision.

He revealed that the projects laid out in this plan are anticipated to require an investment exceeding $1.6 billion over five years.

He emphasized the company's endeavors in forming national and international partnerships to broaden its operational reach. This expansion strategy will widen its investment base and secure its operations, consequently stimulating the national economy and facilitating job creation.

Thuneibat also underlined JPMC's commitment to social responsibility, noting the company's contribution of approximately 51 million dinars in recent years to support local communities.

Providing an overview of the company's operations, notable achievements, and future plans, Thuneibat remarked that the company had successfully penetrated the European market, including countries like Norway and Poland, and further expanded to nations such as Brazil, the United States, India, and Bangladesh, among others.

He outlined the key projects that constitute the company's strategic plan for the coming years. This includes environmental initiatives like the Rusaifa Hills Rehabilitation Project, an aluminum fluoride production facility, a phosphate washing water treatment venture, a phosphate flotation project, and a greening initiative.

The plan also incorporates industrial developments like the expansion of the industrial complex in Aqaba, and a project for the production of pure phosphoric acid.

Thuneibat mentioned future plans for producing yellow phosphorus, fertilizers, and other materials, as well as logistic projects like constructing phosphate storage warehouses, extending the phosphate port, and desalinating seawater to cater to the industrial water needs of the company's factories. The total cost of these envisaged projects is estimated at $1.664 billion.

Hamdi Tabaa, the leader of the Jordanian Businessmen Association, chimed in saying, "In 2020, the government launched a strategy and an interactive map for marketing mineral resources, with the goal of appealing to investors, positioning Jordan on the global mining map, and enhancing the mining sector's contribution to GDP from 7.7% to 11% by 2025."

He shared that the business community anticipates these developments to galvanize the mining and energy sectors. This aligns with the royal directives to revamp investment environment laws to optimize the utilization of natural resources, process raw materials, and foster economic modernization in the mining sector.

Tabaa noted, despite the strides made, the mineral wealth portfolio still requires more attention to transform the diverse minerals that Jordan possesses into economically viable opportunities. Achieving this necessitates identifying and overcoming investment-related obstacles in this vital sector, with a collaborative approach between the public and private sectors.

According to Tabaa, the GDP from mines and quarries last year amounted to 791 million dinars, reflecting a growth rate of 2.9%. The GDP from manufacturing industries was 5.5 billion dinars, with a growth rate of 3.3%.