ASEC wins cement-plant contracts in Egypt
ASEC Engineering has signed three five-year contracts to manage new cement plants that will create over 750 jobs in Egypt. A fourth contract, signed in 2000, has been extended for five years and now runs through mid-2016.
The first new contract is for a plant owned by El-Nahda Co. for Industries in the governorate of Qena, while the other two are assets of South Valley Cement Company (SVCC) in the governorate of Beni Suef and the Building Materials Industrial Company (BMIC) in the governorate of Assuit.
El-Nahda's plant, built by China's TCDRI, has a nominal output of 5,500t/day of clinker, and is scheduled to go into production in the third quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, the SVCC plant has a nominal output of 5,000t/day of clinker. First clinker was produced on July 7, 2011. ASEC Engineering has been carrying out the engineering work for the SVCC plant since January 2007, and took over the operation and management of the clinker grinding and packing plant in October 2008.
In Assiut, ASEC Engineering will provide technical management to BMIC's 5,000t/day cement plant. Phase One, covering clinker grinding and packing, will begin commercial operations in the third quarter of this year. Clinker production will begin in the second quarter of 2012.
ARESCO, another ASEC Holding portfolio company, is carrying out a $130m contract to provide the civil, electrical and mechanical work for the BMIC plant's construction. It is also carrying out the steel fabrication as well as testing and commissioning on behalf of BMIC. Group companies ASA and ESACO are also involved in the construction, with ASEC Engineering as lead consultant.
"These three contracts will see ASEC Engineering conduct the start-up and commissioning works, after which we will take charge of complete plant operations for a period of five years, while providing all necessary spare parts and consumables," explained ASEC Engineering CEO Mohamed Galal Yakout.
Each of the three plants will create more than 250 permanent jobs, the majority of which will be filled by members of the communities in which they are based.
The agreements bring to 14 the number of kilns for which ASEC Engineering provides management services, with a total output of about 18m tons of clinker a year, a 25% increase.