Ethylene amine production begins
Huntsman Corporation and Saudi family-owned conglomerate Zamil Group have started production at their joint-venture plant that will add 6.5 per cent to global ethylene amines supply, state media said.
The 50-50 partners spent SR1.08 billion ($288 million) to build the plant owned by Arabian Amines Company.
The plant starts at a production capacity of 27,215 tonnes per annum but it can be increased to 41,000 tonnes.
Glass plant starts commissioning
Cairo-based Sphinx Glass, a leading float glass manufacturer in the region, has said it has started commissioning its $200.5 million greenfield float glass factory.
Sphinx Glass is 51 per cent owned by GlassWorks, a platform company established by Citadel Capital and a group of co-investors to pursue opportunities in the glass manufacturing industry, while the Dubai Group holds the remaining 49 per cent.
Sphinx Glass will supply the local market and export to the Middle East and Africa.
Freshfields wins award
International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has won the Middle East Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP) Deal of the Year 2009 at the Project Finance Magazine awards. The firm secured the award for advising Bahrain’s Ministry of Finance on the Al Dur IWPP.
The deal was the first of its kind to close in challenging global market conditions, thanks to an innovative and complex financial structure. The $1.6 billion debt was lent as an eight-year mini-perm, structured to facilitate lending from banks. This was the first time an innovative hard mini-perm structure has been used to finance a Middle Eastern power project.
CTI to invest in Indonesian plant
CTI Group, the Gulf region’s largest independent trader of cement and clinker, has agreed to invest in a cement production plant in Indonesia owned by Bosowa Corporation.
The arrangement gives Jordan-based CTI its first investment in one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing markets for infrastructure and construction projects.
Arqaam Capital, a leading Middle Eastern investment bank headquartered in the Dubai International Financial Centre, conceived and arranged the transaction on behalf of CTI.
Dynergy eyes seven-fold expansion
Dynergy Technologies, a unit of Emaar Industries & Investments (EII), is aiming at a seven-fold expansion in production capacity at its new switchboards manufacturing plant in Dubai and has set a Dh200 million ($54.4 million) turnover target by 2012.
Dynergy Technologies specialises in the assembly and supply of LV and MV electrical switchboards and focuses on facilitating energy solutions for local communities, hotels and construction projects.
JV’s initial cost $41mn
Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Maaden) said preliminary work on a petrochemical project in Jubail with South Korea’s Daelim Industrial Co will cost about $41 million and be completed in Q3 of 2012.
In end-December, both firms signed a deal to launch the Jubail project, a petrochemical joint venture with Sahara Petrochemicals Co.
The joint venture is expected to have a capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of caustic soda and 300,000 tpy of ethylene dichloride.
Caustic soda is a feedstock used for refining of bauxite to alumina. Maaden, formed in 1997, has projects for gold and base metals, phosphate and aluminium, and will be served by a railway to maximise the full potential of the company.
Dubai gold imports down
Dubai’s gold import volumes in 2009 totalled 576 tonnes, a 15 per cent decline compared to a year earlier, a statement from the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority (DMCCA) said.
Branded as the city of gold, Dubai has seen weak demand from the gold retail sector over the past year, as the high price of the yellow metal coupled with the economic crisis curbed consumer spending.
In terms of value, the gold trade in Dubai stood at $29 billion in 2009, matching the value of trade a year earlier, the statement said.
Gold exports from Dubai were 403 tonnes in 2009, a 9 per cent increase from a year earlier.
CPC to build six plants in Al Ain
Saudi-based Construction Products Holding Company (CPC) has announced plans to open six new factories in Al Ain this year.
The factories will cost $200 million and include a ready-mix cement facility and glass and steel plants, Dr Faisal Ibrahim Al Sulaiman Al Aqeel, director of business and administration affairs development, said.
