State firm Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (Echem) is studying the feasibility of building a $1.5bn polypropylene (PP) plant at Alexandria. Local media quotes an Echem official as saying the company expects to complete the study over the coming year, with a view to beginning work on the project in 2015, depending on the availability of funding.
No PP capacity figure was given. Echem’s current projects include 600,000 tons/year of propylene capacity – possible feedstock for the plant – in the Tahrir Petrochemical Complex, being built at Ain Sukhna for 2019 start-up. As a guide, Echem unit EPPC can produce 400,000 t/y of propylene (from 430,000 t/y of propane) for conversion into 360,000 t/y of PP, while the world’s largest PP plant produces 500,000 t/y. (CONTINUED - 264 WORDS)
