From Sharm el Sheikh: Egypt’s biggest petrochemicals project, the Tahrir Petrochemicals Complex (TCP), is looking to finalise its project financing before the end of October according to Carbon Holdings, the private company behind the project.

“Financing is likely to be completed in September, October at the latest,” said Mohamed Helmy, the director of corporate finance and investor relations at Carbon Holdings.

The $7bn scheme 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.

International funding

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).

Petrochemical projects are amongst a range of multibillion-dollar schemes that will be promoted to investors at the Egypt Economic Development Conference that is due to kick off on 13 March in Sharm el-Sheikh.