Israel Chemicals Ltd. (
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
: כימיקלים לישראל בע"מ), also known as ICL, is a multi-national
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i manufacturing concern that develops, produces and markets
fertilizerFertilizers are chemical compounds applied to promote plant and fruit growth. Fertilizers are usually applied either through the soil or by foliar feeding...
s, metals and other special-purpose chemical products.
ICL was formed in 1968 as a conglomerate of the
Dead Sea WorksThe Dead Sea Works is the current name of the successor company to the Palestine Potash Company which was founded by Moshe Novomeysky in the 1920s -- for more detail on its foundation, see here...
and other state-owned companies that extracted minerals from
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The indigenous Bedouin inhabitants of the region refer to the desert as al-Naqab . The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
desert mines.
In 1977, ICL started its first manufacturing (as opposed to sales) efforts abroad, with the purchase of BK Giulini Chemie GmbH, a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
chemicals manufacturer.
Israel Chemicals Ltd. (
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
: כימיקלים לישראל בע"מ), also known as ICL, is a multi-national
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i manufacturing concern that develops, produces and markets
fertilizerFertilizers are chemical compounds applied to promote plant and fruit growth. Fertilizers are usually applied either through the soil or by foliar feeding...
s, metals and other special-purpose chemical products.
History
ICL was formed in 1968 as a conglomerate of the
Dead Sea WorksThe Dead Sea Works is the current name of the successor company to the Palestine Potash Company which was founded by Moshe Novomeysky in the 1920s -- for more detail on its foundation, see here...
and other state-owned companies that extracted minerals from
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The indigenous Bedouin inhabitants of the region refer to the desert as al-Naqab . The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
desert mines.
In 1977, ICL started its first manufacturing (as opposed to sales) efforts abroad, with the purchase of BK Giulini Chemie GmbH, a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
chemicals manufacturer. This was followed in later years with further overseas acquisitions.
ICL was
privatizedPrivatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector...
on the
Tel Aviv Stock ExchangeThe Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in Tel Aviv is Israel's only stock exchange.The TASE is the only public market for trading securities in Israel. It plays a major role in the Israeli economy....
(TASE) in 1992. The government still retains a "Special State Share," which entitles the State to certain veto rights. Since 1995, ICL's controlling interest is held by the
Israel CorporationIsrael Corp is a constituent of the TA-25 Index of leading shares of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange additionally, two of its major holdings, Israel Chemicals and Oil Refineries Ltd are also constituents of the TA-25 Index...
holding group. As of October 2007, ICL's market cap was US $12.9 Billion.
As of April 2009, the company was said to be considering a bond offering to raise 500 million shekels ($122 million).
Current operations
90% of ICL's sales are exports. A major player on world markets, ICL through its subsidiaries, accounts for:
- 35% of world bromine
Bromine , is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. A halogen element, bromine is a reddish-brown volatile liquid at standard room temperature that is intermediate in reactivity between chlorine and iodine. Bromine vapors are corrosive and toxic. Approximately 556,000 metric...
production
- 11% of world potash
Potash is the common name given to potassium carbonate and various mined and manufactured salts that contain the element potassium in water-soluble form. In some rare cases, potash can be formed with traces of organic materials such as plant remains....
production and 13% of international potash trade (excluding the cross-border trade between the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
)
- 9% of western world primary magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12 and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the earth's crust by mass, although ninth in the Universe as a whole...
consumption
- 3% of world phosphate
A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...
rock production, 3% of international phosphate rock trade (excluding the cross-border trade between the US and Canada)
- One of the world’s most integrated manufacturers and suppliers of phosphate products.
ICL's operations also make it a leading supplier of fertilizers in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and a major player in numerous specialty chemical market segments. In Israel, ICL is the leading supplier of fertilizers and the leading chemical concern, as well as one of Israel's largest companies.
60% of ICL's raw products (minerals) are excavated in Israel. ICL also owns and operates underground
mineMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock salt and potash...
s in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
,
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
(
North YorkshireNorth Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county, located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county in that region and also partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest ceremonial...
),
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, the
USThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
.