Egypt’s largest active petrochemicals project, the $6.8bn Tahrir Petrochemicals Complex (TPC) is due to start construction in the third quarter of 2015, according the private company behind the project Carbon Holdings.

“We’re finalising the financing now and looking at starting construction in the third quarter,” said Mohamed Helmy, the director of corporate finance and investor relations at Carbon Holdings.

The TPC project includes the construction of a 1.5 million tonne-a-year (t/y) ethylene cracker and a polyethylene facility with capacity of about 1.4 million t/y.

Carbon Holdings started work on the TCP project one year before the 2011 uprising. Originally, it was expected to be completed in 2017, but due to delays caused by the revolution and subsequent turmoil, the main construction contractors have yet to deploy and Carbon Holdings is currently targeting commissioning in 2019.

The project is set to be financed with assistance from four national export credit agencies: Export-Import Bank of the US (Eximbank); Export-Import Bank of Korea (Keximbank); Korea Trade Insurance Company (Ksure); and Italian Export Credit Agency (Sace).

It has also been reported in Egyptian media that Carbon Holdings is in negotiations with the UAE government over a $400m investment in the complex.