President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on 2 November approved a military-led project to build a phosphatic fertiliser complex at Sokhna, at the southern end of the Suez Canal.

The scheme will be carried out by El-Nasr Company for Intermediate Chemicals, which is a subsidiary of the National Services Products Organisation, a division of the Ministry of Defence.

According to a statement issued by the presidency, the meeting to approve the project was attended by the chief financial officer of the armed forces, which suggests its financing will include military funds.

The complex will comprise nine units, and when completed will produce 1 million tonnes a year of phosphate and compound fertilisers, di-ammmonium phosphate (DAP), and pure and commercial phosphoric acid.

The statement said companies from Italy, Spain and China will provide technology and other services for the project.

Military-affiliated companies, including El-Nasr and Abu Zaabal Fertiliser Company, already dominate Egypt’s phosphatic fertiliser business. The country has considerable under-exploited phosphate reserves in the Western Desert.

It is not clear whether non-military private sector companies will get the opportunity to develop phosphatic fertiliser projects.

In an interview with MEED in June 2013, Nassef Sawiris, chief executive officer of OCI, a global nitrogenous fertiliser group originating in Egypt but now based in the Netherlands, said he would relish the opportunity to branch out into phosphatic fertilisers, making use of Egypt’s abundant reserves.

Nine local firms awarded contracts for quay walls

Nine Egyptian contractors have been enlisted to build the infrastructure needed for the planned expansion of the East Port Said container terminal, one of the critical elements in the Suez Canal regional economic development scheme.

The companies have each been awarded directly negotiated contracts to build 500 metres of quay walls, with a total length of 4.5 kilometres.

Wael Salim of Arab Contractors told local business newspaper Alborsa that his firm’s portion of the work would cost £E475m ($60m), and that it was scheduled for completion in October 2016. Each section of quay wall will be 65 metres deep and 35 metres wide.

Several of the companies are also working on a series of six road and rail tunnels beneath the Suez Canal, as part of the regional development programme.

The masterplan has been drawn up by Dar al-Handasah (Shair & Partners).

Carbon Holdings set to sign Tahrir EPC deals

Carbon Holdings is poised to sign the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for its Tahrir Petrochemicals complex in Sokhna in the next few weeks, marking a decisive step forward for the much-delayed project.

Chairman and CEO Basil el-Baz told MEED in early November that the recent approval by the board of US-based Overseas Private Investment Corporation of $400m in financing for the project had opened the way for a potential financial close in the second quarter of 2016.

The latest delay stemmed from the shut-down of the Export-Import Bank of the US (Exim Bank) in June. Exim Bank is one of the principal sources of finance for the project. El-Baz said there are now strong indications that Exim Bank will get a new charter from Congress.

The EPC contract is worth about $2.6bn, and will be signed by an international consortium led by Linde of Germany.

The scheme is Egypt’s biggest-ever petrochemicals project and includes the construction of a 1.5 million tonnes-a-year (t/y) ethylene cracker and a polyethylene facility with capacity of about 1.4 million t/y.

It will use imported naphtha as its principal feedstock, and the complex will include its own power generation and desalination facilities. The total cost is estimated at about $7bn.