Egypt's Carbon Holdings has announced that it has signed a deal with one of the four export credit agencies expected to provide funds worth between $4 billion and $5 billion for its Tahrir petrochemicals project.

Located at Ain Sokhna at the southern end of the Suez Canal, the $7 billion structure will be one of Egypt’s biggest petrochemical projects when completed. The project is expected to boost the amount of the products produced by the country by 50% in the first 10 years after coming on stream.

According to Carbon Holdings’ CEO, Basil El-Baz (photo), the fund had been expected to end by 2015 ending and provided by five credit agencies but negotiations had been suspended since the Export-Import Bank of the United States (U.S. EXIM) was unable to loan new cash pending the time its licence is renewed by the Congress. However, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation has now agreed to direct funding, he added not disclosing how much the agreement was worth.

Carbon Holdings expects U.S. EXIM, Sace of Italy and UK Export Finance to add to the 17-and-a-half-year debt facility, either by direct lending or guarantees for commercial bank loans.

The commencement of construction works on Tahrir has also been behind schedule from the plan given in 2015. Carbon Holdings have said that work is at present expected to commence by 2016 ending and last for about four years, Reuters reports.

Anita Fatunji