Egypt selling stake in rubber & plastics producer Ethydco

Cairo – The Egyptian government has signed a series of deals to increase the role of private sector in its economy: including offering stakes in petrochemical and energy-related firms.

Deals include a €715-million package to sell stakes of between 25% and 30% in three companies to Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ, said Hala Al-Saeed, Egypt’s minister of planning and economic development.

This will see ADQ acquire a stake in Ethylene and Derivatives Co. (Ethydco), Egyptian Drilling Co. and Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene (Elab), she said 11 July.

Operational since 2011, Ethydco includes a 460 kilotonne per annum (ktpa) ethylene production plant and a 20ktpa butadiene production unit, using Lummus technology.

In April 2020, Ethydco announced plans to build a 36ktpa butadiene rubber (BR) unit at the facility, based in Alexandria, northern Egypt.

At the time, the Egyptian producer said it had awarded a Saipem-led consortium the contract to build the country’s first BR production facility, licenced by Versalis.

Scope-of-work for the $150-million rubber project included a single train for the production of low-cis polybutadiene and related facilities to be built within 24 months.

According to its website, Ethydco currently manufactures solution polymerised styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR) and low-cis polybutadiene rubber.