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| OCI to construct cement plant in Saudi Arabia  Cairo-based Orascom Construction Industries announced that it has agreed to enter into a 50/50 joint venture with Khayyat Group, one of the leading industrial investors in Saudi Arabia with investments in building materials and real estate, in Al Safwa Cement Company. Khayyat Group is the leader in the red bricks industry, in the Middle East. The joint venture will construct a 1.4 million tons per year state-of-the-art greenfield cement plant with an upgrade option that will raise capacity to 2 million tons per year to be located in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia in close proximity to the new King Abdullah City, approximately 140 km from the city of Jeddah.Total investment cost for the 2 million tons of capacity is estimated to reach US$ 360 million. It is expected that a ThyssenKrupp Polysius / OCI consortium will erect the plant which is expected to begin production operations during the first quarter 2009. The Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) has preliminarily agreed to finance the project in Saudi Arabian Riyals in an amount equivalent to US$ 111.5 million, with highly favorable terms and a repayment period of more than 10 years from the date of agreement. The SIDF loan constitutes almost half of the required debt for the project. The SIDF was established by the Government of Saudi Arabia to encourage the industrial development of the Kingdom by providing support and long-term soft loan financing for new projects that abide by specified criteria. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Construction News :: home page |