After a 2.1% increase in 2021, the extractive sector production index fell by 18.6% at the end of 2022, according to data published by the Financial Studies and Forecasts Department ( DEPF).
It should be noted that this development covers a drop of 10.1% in the first quarter, 15.6% in the second quarter, 19% in the third quarter and 28.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022, as underlined by this Department under the Ministry of Economy and Finance in its note on the economy of March 2023 (No. 313).
According to the explanations provided by the DEPF, this withdrawal is the result of the drop in the production index of “Miscellaneous extractive industry products” by 30.2% and the increase in that of “Metallic minerals” by 8.2%. .
The main component of the extractive sector, the production of crude phosphate fell at the same time by 20.1% at the end of the past year, after an increase of 1.8% at the end of 2021, said the DEPF, also indicating a decline of 6.7% of the production of phosphate derivatives at the end of 2022.
Still according to the DEPF, “despite this decline in terms of production, the export turnover of the OCP group rose by 36% at the end of 2022, benefiting from the rise in world prices. of phosphate products recorded this year”.
It should be noted that for the month of January 2023, the increase in the average export price of raw phosphate, year-on-year, was maintained, favoring an increase in the value of its exports by 3.8%. , underlines the DEPF.
With regard to foreign sales of phosphate derivatives, the latest economic report shows that they “went back, in value, by 42.8% at the end of January 2023, under a joint price and volume effect, after an exceptional increase of 159.8% a year earlier”.
The Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts deduces that “the export turnover of the OCP group fell by 38.6% at the end of January 2023, after +151.9% the previous year”.
In addition, the value of shipments under the heading “Other mining extractions” firmed up by 29.2%.
As a reminder, the value added of the extractive sector, in volume, had resulted in a drop of 7.7%, on average, at the end of the first nine months of 2022, following a decline of 4.8% in the first quarter, 7.8% in the second quarter and 10.4% in the third quarter of 2022.
In its economic note for the previous month (February, No. 312), the DEPF estimated that this trend was in line with that of crude phosphate production, which had fallen, in volume, by 11% in the first quarter, 16.5% in the second quarter and 20.3% in the third quarter of 2022.
In a previous analysis, this downward trend was accentuated in the fourth quarter of 2022 with “a decline of 31.6%, bringing its decline at the end of 2022 to 20.1%, after a decline of 16.1% at the end of September 2022 and an increase of 1.8% at the end of 2021”.
Thus, and to a lesser extent, the production of phosphate derivatives was down 6.7%, after a decline of 1.7% a year earlier.
The DEPF had on the other hand estimated that “the value of exports of phosphates and derivatives appreciated by 43.9% at the end of 2022, to reach 115.5 billion dirhams and this, after an increase of 57, 8% a year earlier”.
Alain Bouithy