DHAKA: Bangladesh is preparing to set up a fertilizer plant in Saudi Arabia, its trade ministry said on Thursday, as the South Asian nation seeks to meet domestic demand amid a crisis in global supply.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 exacerbated a global fertilizer shortage, boosting prices to all-time highs. The price hikes have already affected Bangladesh’s agriculture sector, threatening the country’s food security.
Talks on the establishment of a diammonium phosphate fertilizer plant in Saudi Arabia began last year, and on Wednesday a memorandum for a feasibility study was signed by the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation and Hanwha Saudi Contracting Company.
The agreement was inked in a virtual meeting organized by the Bangladeshi Ministry of Industry and the country’s embassy in Riyadh, which said in a statement that it was the first Bangladeshi government initiative to set up an industrial plant on foreign soil.
“We estimate that it may take around six months for the completion of the feasibility study. Once we receive the positive report in the feasibility study, our government will start the agreement negotiations with the Kingdom’s authorities. Usually, it takes two-three years for a factory like this to start production,” Sharif Md. Mashud, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Industries in Dhaka, told Arab News.
The plant, co-owned by the countries, will help meet demand for the fertilizer in Bangladesh, which needs 1.6 million tons of DAP a year to fuel its agriculture sector.
The production volume of the Saudi-based plant will be established after the feasibility study.
“We have chosen Saudi Arabia for the fertilizer factory since the country has a huge supply of raw materials and they also have sufficient capital to invest. We are yet to fix the production capacity of this fertilizer factory,” Mashud said.
“Primarily, we plan to meet our local demand from this factory’s production. We import fertilizer regularly from different countries. The establishment of this factory would enable us to secure fertilizer imports for farmers.”
Bangladesh used to meet over 70 percent of its DAP demand from domestic production, but the figure has fallen in recent years.
“Now, the production volume has come down to 30 percent. Many of our local fertilizer factories are not functioning at full capacity,” Jahangir Alam, agricultural economist and former vice-chancellor of the University of Global Village in Barisal, told Arab News.
Sourcing fertilizer from different countries has become difficult, he said.
“If we can establish a joint venture fertilizer factory, our farmers will benefit a lot. The supply channel will be smooth, and it will check the increase of fertilizer prices during the peak demand season.”
Bangladesh seeks to produce fertilizer in Saudi Arabia amid dwindling supply
https://arab.news/ctufa
Bangladesh seeks to produce fertilizer in Saudi Arabia amid dwindling supply
- South Asian nation signs feasibility study agreement with Hanwha Saudi Contracting Company
- Bangladesh needs 1.6 million tons of DAP a year to fuel its agriculture sector
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
