For the PDH project, OPC is holding discussions with Germany's Lurgiabout setting up a replica in Suez of a plant the German firm is on the point of completing in Tarragona, in Spain. This plant would use technology supplied by UOPof the US. OPC has also invited Samsung Corporationof South Korea to bid for the Suez project, with technology from US-based ABB Lummus Global. The other companies being considered for the Suez project are Japan's Toyo Engineering Corporation, offering the UOP process, and Germany's Krupp Uhde, with technology it has recently acquired from Phillips Petroleum Corporationof the US.

OPC has received a boost from the government with the tariff adjustments announced on 2 January (MEED 11:1:02, Economy). The tariff on polypropylene imports has been raised to 15 per cent from 10 per cent, and the tariff on propylene has gone down to 5 per cent from 10 per cent. The tariff on co-polymer polypropylene, which is not produced in Egypt, has also been cut to 5 per cent from 10 per cent.