The Egyptian Chemical Industries Company (KIMA) has managed to build a reserve of foreign cash worth $60m through exports. The reserve will be used to ensure that the company can fulfil its future payments to Italian company Tecnimont, which is establishing KIMA’s new ammonia plant and the project to rehabilitate factories to operate on natural gas.
The project includes construction of a unit for the production of ammonia with a capacity of 1,200 tonnes per day and an average annual output of 396,000 tonnes. The sheer production includes setting aside 900 tonnes per day for the production of 520,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser every year.
KIMA has paid some EGP 1bn to Tecnimont’s project contractor, which is equivalent to nearly 15% of the total cost of the project, amounting to $750m. The project is set to be completed by the end of 2018.
A source from the company said that profits in the past fiscal year amounted to EGP 110m. He attributed the increase to the rise in sales and the global price hikes of fertilisers.
For the fiscal year of 2016/2017, the company targets production of 111,000 tonnes of nitrate fertilisers. Moreover, it aims to export 10,000 tonnes at $265 per tonne. KIMA has signed contracts to export to Sudan for the first time.
