John Brown Engineers & Constructors, the Netherlands-based subsidiary of Trafalgar House of the UK, has a contract to engineer and deliver Pakistan's first polyethylene plant, in Rawalpindi. Chematur Engineering of Sweden is to finalise a contract to build the feedstock plant. Export credit financing has been arranged for both contracts.

The polyethylene plant will produce 30,000 tonnes a year of high and low-density polyethylene and cover a quarter of the local market. It is licensed from Stamicarbon of the Netherlands. The ethylene feedstock will be produced through an ethanol-to-ethylene conversion process to be provided by Chematur. The client is the local Northern Polyethylene, a private company.

Financing for the polyethylene plant includes a DFl 44.3 million ($23.3 million) loan agreed with Mees Pierson of the Netherlands in early December, which covers part of the project cost. The loan is covered by guarantees from Nederlandse Crediet Maatschappij and Hermes, the Dutch and German export credit agencies. The remainder of the cost will be covered by the government. John Brown declined to name a contract value. Chematur has a SKr 59 million ($7.1 million) loan agreement with Svenska Handelsbanken for part of the project. The loan is guaranteed by EKN, the Swedish export credit agency.