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ICL benefits from the proximity of its facilities to developed economies as well as to emerging markets.
Most of ICL’s products in Israel, whether in solid or liquid state, are transported from the Company’s southern sites by rail to the Ashdod and Haifa ports or by trucks to the Eilat port. The port of Eilat is located in the far south of Israel on the Red Sea coast, approximately 180 kilometers south of Rotem and 200 kilometers south of Sdom. Shipments exiting the Eilat port are usually to the Far East, whereas sales to Europe and North and South America, as well as some sales to the Far East, are transported from the Ashdod port.
Potash from ICL Dead Sea is transported by a conveyor belt from the Sdom site to a railhead located at Tzefa in Mishor Rotem, and from there the output is transported by rail to Ashdod port.
A major part of truck transports of ICL products in Israel is handled by ICL’s wholly owned subsidiary, ICL Tovala, which operates rigid freight trucks and trailers.
Safety is a core value for ICL, including in logistics and transportation.
ICL uses multiple modes of transportation to transport its products and employees. As a result, transport by road is one of the issues on which ICL focuses its attention.
ICL trains its employees to drive safely, including use of unique simulator training as part of the Company’s annual Global ESG Week activities.
In Israel, ICL maintains driver safety rules that prohibit employees who receive repeated warnings/fines from driving Company vehicles.
ICL has also initiated a carpool pilot program that will give additional benefits to employees who ride together to work.
ICL is reviewing its logistics fleet, in order to increase its efficiency and minimize air pollution. The fleet is transitioning to advanced Euro 6 trucks, which use urea additives to reduce their emissions.
ICL also promotes efficiency in road transport. ICL Israel is transitioning some of its leased vehicle fleet to hybrid or electric cars. It has set a target that by 2022 CO2 emissions will be 100 grams for every km. In addition, high emitting vehicles will not be accommodated and vehicles emitting more than 170 grams/km will require CEO approval.
Currently, approximately 25% of ICL’s leased fleet are hybrid or plug-in. ICL will offer EVs, as they become more available in Israel. It is expected that by the end of 2022 the Company will have 200 EVs. In vehicle categories where there is a variety of hybrid or plug-in vehicles available, vehicles with combustion engines will be limited.
ICL Iberia transports excavated ore from its mine to production plants, and final products, including potash and salt, from its plants and mine to its customers, by trucks to the local market, and to the Barcelona port for overseas markets.
Ore is transported by 25-ton road haulage trucks from the Cabanasses mine to the Suria plant. With the activation of the ramp (in 2021), the ore will be transported from Cabanasses mine to the Suria plant directly through conveyor belts, eliminating the daily circulation of about 500 trucks. Final products, including potash and various salts, are transported directly to customers by truck or through a designated railway line from the mines to the Port of Barcelona.
ICL Iberia owns and maintains approximately 1.5 kilometers of standard gauge railway at its Suria plant. These rail lines connect to the regional rail network. Up to three trains depart daily, with a total payload capacity of 800 tonnes, distributed over approximately 21 freight cars. ICL Iberia signed a freight rail transport agreement with FGC (Ferrocarrils Generalitat de Catalunya) which is expected to increase the capacity of the rail transport. In the coming years, it is expected to increase to 24 freight cars, 1,000 tonnes and up to seven daily trains. The rail route for potash transport from Suria to the terminal in the Port of Barcelona covers a distance of about 80 kilometers.
ICL Iberia owns and operates its own port facilities, which consist of bulk potash and salt storage facilities, freight car and rail truck conveyor unloading facilities, and product storage warehouses. Most of the shipments of ICL Iberia are made through its terminal at the Port of Barcelona (Trafico de Mercancias – Tramer). The Company inaugurated a new deep-water terminal in the Barcelona port in June 2020. Read more here.
ICL Iberia and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC – The Catalan Railways Authority) signed an agreement to increase the number of trains transporting potash and salt from the Bages mines to the Port of Barcelona. The agreement is valid for 30 years and will double the amount of ore that the Company transports to the port by train, reaching about two million tons each year.
By increasing the number of freight convoys to the port, an initial reduction of about 86,000 vehicles per year by road with the corresponding decrease in CO₂ emissions is expected, as well as contributing to the increase in road safety. Read more on this subject in ICL’s 2019 CSR Report.
“This is a strategic agreement for the company, as it will allow us to increase in an efficient and agile way the quantity of our products that we transport by rail to the Port of Barcelona. In addition, we will do so in a manner that is fully respectful of sustainability, as it will allow us to reduce the movement of vehicles on the road as well as the corresponding reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. ICL is the only potash company in the state and needs transport infrastructures that contribute to generating wealth, which is why we will continue to focus on logistical innovation and security so that the transfer of minerals is more sustainable." Carles Aleman, CEO of ICL Iberia
ICL Iberia, as part of a consortium of companies, research centers and universities in France, Sweden, Denmark and Spain, participated in an innovative European logistics project, HERMES, aimed at optimizing the design of a new freight railroad wagon. A new wagon was planned, with advanced materials, aiming to improve its loading factor and utilizing a new monitoring system. The project also included a new loading and unloading facility to optimize product transport and improve competitiveness and efficiency. This project was part of the EU’s Mobility for Growth “Smart Rail” (MG2.2) Horizon 2020 program.
ICL’s Boulby mine in the United Kingdom is connected by a network of roads running over 11 kilometers southward from the mine entrance, as well as a network of underground roads extending 17.5 kilometers from the mine entrance in the direction of the North Sea. Approximately 80 kilometers of underground tunnels remain open to support current production. The mine enjoys easy access to national road and train transportation routes.
Pursuant to agreements with the North Yorkshire National Parks Authority, the total transport movements by means of the network of roads from site to site are limited to a maximum of 150 thousand tonnes per year and a maximum of 66 road wagons per day (no road movements are allowed on Sundays or bank holidays).
Eight trains per day transport Polysulphate®, PotashpluS and rock‑salt to Teesdock. Most of the Polysulphate® output is used as a component in agricultural fertilizers, and volumes are exported by sea from the Teesdock seaport to customers in the UK and overseas.
Rock‑salt is transported by train to Teesdock and loaded onto ships or trucks to local UK authorities for de‑icing roads.
ICL Boulby leases and operates three principal storage and loading facilities: the Teesdock facility, which is located on the Tees River, and two additional storage facilities that are connected to the main rail line – Cobra and Ayrton Works in Middlesbrough.
The YPH JV includes the Haikou mine, several factories for production of various types of fertilizers located close to the Haikou mine, and two plants for production of downstream products – one located close to the Haikou mine and the fertilizers factory and the other situated near the Kunming airport.
Most of the transport of raw materials from the Haikou mine to the acid factories is executed via pipeline (slurry), whereas a small portion of the raw rock is transported by trucks.
Most of the output sold to the local market is transported from the fertilizers factory directly to customers in North China by train, as well as through marine shipment, mainly from two ports (Beihai and Fangchengang). These ports are also used for import of sulphur. A small portion of the output sold is transported to customers in the Yunnan region.
