29 May 2017
Egypt: Egyptian Cement has started negotiations to secure a US$221m loan to finance the construction of its first cement plant in Sohag province. The cement division of Egyptian Group is dealing with a consortium comprising the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, CIB and Arab African International Bank, according to the Al Mal newspaper. The total cost of the new 2Mt/yr plant is estimated at US$276m. Egyptian Group’s chief executive officer Ahmed Abu Hashima set up Egyptian Steel in 2010.
India: 15 companies have expressed interest in building cemeunt plants near to NTPC’s power stations. The electricity generation company sought cement producers in early 2017 to submit expressions of interest for partnerships to build 1Mt/yr cement plants, according to the Mint newspaper. NTPC wants its partners to sign long-term agreements with it to exclusively use fly ash and electricity from its power plants. The company has declined to name the companies that have expressed interest in the scheme. However, the power plants it wants to set up cement plants near include Barh, Farakka, Bongaigaon, Dadri, Badarpur, Moda and Aravali Power.