Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco) became the largest urea exporter to Australia when it signed an agreement with Australia’s Incitec.

The agreement stipulates exports of 350,000 tonnes per year  (tpy) of urea to East Australia over the next two years.
With the deal Qafco will capture a 35 per cent share of the Australian market and 55 per cent share in the East Australia fertiliser trade.
Khalifa Abdullah Al Sowaidi, Qafco managing director, and James Whiteside, Incitec sourcing manager, signed the agreement.
Last year Qafco’s exports of urea accounted for a seven per cent share of the Australian market.
The Qatari company said the agreement came in the context of its long-term strategy to explore new marketing opportunities and boost its share in existing and potential markets in order to secure outlets for the anticipated additional capacity from the upcoming commissioning of the Qafco-4 expansion project.
Qafco’s urea exports for 2003 amounted to 1.89 million tonnes, exceeding the budget target by 11 per cent and the previous year’s figure by seven per cent.
Qafco is set to become the world’s largest single-site producer of urea with an annual production capacity of 2.8 million tonnes of urea per year when a urea plant, part of the Qafco-4, goes on stream shortly. 
The German engineering firm Krupp-Uhde is building Qafco-4.  The expansion also includes an ammonia plant with a production capacity of 2 million tpy and support units. 
“Our annual ammonia and urea production will accordingly jump by 50 per cent and 65 per cent respectively,” Al Sowaidi said recently.
A urea Formaldehyde-85 (UFC-85) plant was also built as part of the Qafco-4 expansion project and commissioned last September.
 Al Sowaidi said the inauguration of the Gulf Formaldehyde Company (GFC) plant not only signified the start of a new industry in Qatar, but also marked a milestone in forging a lasting partnership between the state-owned petrochemical industries and the private sector companies.
The plant will make Qafco self-sufficient in urea formaldehyde, which used to be imported from abroad, while the surplus is be exported to neighbouring countries.
The GFC is a joint venture having a capital of QR40 million ($10.9 million) and 70 per cent of the shares owned by Qafco.
Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC) has a 15 per cent stake, United Development Company (UDC) 10 per cent and Qatar Ladies Investment Company (QSCC) five per cent.
Al Sowaidi said his company was looking forward to a prosperous future and that preparations were under way for embarking on the Qafco-5 expansion.