Australia Centrex Limited subsidiary Agriflex exports first shipment to Asia market

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Australian producer Centrex Limited announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Agriflex has exported its first shipment of phosphate rock to a substantial customer in South Korea.

The 15,000 tonne shipment is headed to a substantial commercial producer customer of Samsung C&T, and Centrex said it represents the first time an Australian company has supplied phosphate to the Asian market.

In February, Centrex signed a binding marketing services agreement with Samsung C&T for the sale of phosphate rock from its Ardmore Phosphate Rock Mine situated in northwest Queensland.

The agreement covered the appointment of Samsung C&T as the sole and exclusive agent for sales into the large markets of Korea, Japan, Indonesia, India, Mexico and Taiwan with 20% of total production at Ardmore allocated under the arrangement.

“China is the world’s largest producer of phosphate however phosphate rock supplies up to the quality of Centrex’s phosphate rock product are not yet widely available on the Asian continent,” said Robert Mencel, Centrex managing director.

“We have the utmost confidence that this shipment will open doors for us in the Asian market on account of the quality of our product. Not only is it a very high grade phosphate rock but it also very low in Cadmium, a toxic chemical which can be concentrated in crops and cause health problems.”

Centrex also noted that Australia and New Zealand, combined, import around 1m tonnes of high-grade phosphate rock each year, with supply mainly coming from Africa.