Morocco’s advantageous position on the global race for battery material builds on the country’s mineral wealth and integration of supply chains, the International energy Agency (IEA) said it in its Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026.
Morocco holds 70% of the world’s phosphate reserves but only about 15% of global mining supply, the report said.
For purified phosphoric acid (PPA), a key input for LFP battery cathodes – whose global EV market share hit 55% in 2025, up from 15% in 2020 – the IEA projects Morocco will hold 5% of global production capacity by 2035. Morocco, the US and Canada together are projected to account for over 55% of planned PPA capacity outside China by 2035.
PPA prices rose nearly 4% in Q1 2026, topping $1,500 a ton, driven by higher sulfuric acid costs tied to the Middle East conflict and rising phosphate rock prices, the report said.
Free-trade agreements between Morocco and the EU and US give Chinese-financed battery supply chain projects preferential market access unavailable to direct Chinese exports, the IEA noted, a factor behind Chinese investment from Gotion, BTR, Huayou and CNGR, driven largely by Morocco’s phosphate reserves.
On cobalt, the report cited Managem’s Bou Azzer project converting cobalt metal to cobalt sulfate, with capacity of 6 kilotons a year, including 1.2 kilotons of contained cobalt.
Global cobalt sulfate demand is set to grow nearly 60% by 2035, but supply remains concentrated outside China and Indonesia, making Morocco’s project one of few diversification efforts identified, alongside Umicore’s Kokkola refinery in Finland.
On graphite, the report highlighted Morocco’s Tangier anode plant, which alongside a Bécancour, Canada facility, is expected to produce about 20 kilotons a year of coated spherical battery-grade graphite by 2030, amid China’s share of global graphite production slipping from 84% in 2023 to about 80% in 2025.
