Egypt’s state generator EEHC plans to sign a contract for a $4.4bn coal-fired power plant at a Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing next week. EEHC selected a consortium of China’s Shanghai Electric and Dongfang Electric with Egypt’s Hassan Allam as preferred bidder for the 6GW plant – Egypt’s first coal-fired power plant – to be built at Hamrawein on the Red Sea coast. The site is near a port where coal-handling facilities will be built. The consortium will design, build and operate the plant and also organize project finance. Development is expected to take seven years from the contract signing, putting start-up at 2025 at the earliest (MEES, 29 June).