Alexandria Carbon Black Expansion

completed

Summary Of Project Information (SPI)Project NameEGYPT-Alexandria Carbon Black Company SAE (ACB)     RegionMiddle East/North AfricaSectorProject No007595Projected Board DateJune 18, 1996Company NameAlexandria Carbon Black Company SAETechnical Partner and/or Major Shareholders ACB is 51% owned by the Aditya Birla Group, through Grasim Industries of India, a leading industrial company engaged in production of synthetic fibers, textiles, cement, and various chemicals, and Indo-Bharat Rayon of Indonesia, a textile company. The Birla Group operates carbon black plants in Thailand, India and Egypt. The Egyptian partners in ACB include the two local tire manufacturers, and the technical partner is Continental Carbon Corporation, a major US based carbon black producer.Project Cost Including proposed IFC investment The estimated cost of the expansion is US$41 million. IFC is considering a loan of US$5 million and an equity investment of US$1.5 million.Location of project and Description of site ACB''s carbon black plant is located in the new Amereya Industrial Zone, 35 kms. Southwest of Alexandria, easily accessible from the main Cairo-Alexandria desert road.      Description of Company and Purpose of Project The Project is an expansion of ACB’s existing carbon black plant to increase capacity by 33,000 mtpy. IFC helped bring the first project to fruition, which was based upon using locally available raw materials to produce carbon black for supply to the Egyptian tire industry. With this initial grass roots development completed and ACB establishing itself as a reliable producer of good quality product, the expansion project is geared at increasing its penetration of the export market where favorable opportunities exist. Environmental Category and Issues This is a category B project according to IFC’s environmental procedure. Environmental and occupational health and safety issues associated with the Project include air emissions, solid waste management and liquid effluent treatment and discharge. Occupational health and safety issues include exposure to dust, fire safety and explosion prevention, and general employee health and safety. The Company will prepare an environmental assessment which will be provided to IFC for review. The is May 13, 1996 from the Public Information Center. Date SPI sent to PIC May 10, 1996For Additional Information contact: Corporate Relations Unit -telephone: (202) 473-7711facsimile: (202) 676-0365Environmental documents for this project are available at http://www.ifc.org and from the World Bank InfoShop (http://www.worldbank.org/html/pic/aboutinfo.html).