Engro Asahi Polymer and Chemicals Limited

completed

_x000C_Engro Asahi Polymer & Chemicals Limited (EAPCL or the company) is a joint venture between Engro Chemical Pakistan Ltd. (ECPL), an IFC client company who is Pakistan’s second largest fertilizer company and Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan), each with an 80% and 20% shareholding, respectively. EAPCL is the only PVC manufacturer in Pakistan with a capacity of 100,000 tons per annum (tpa) and its operations are located at Port Qasim in Karachi. Its plant was commissioned in November 14, 1999 and IFC assisted in the financing of this plant.The project consists of a production capacity increase and backward integration for EAPCL. Specifically, this entails: - construction of a new, second plant to produce an additional 50,000 tons per annum (tpa) of PVC, increasing EAPCL’S capacity to 150,000 tpa; - the dismantling, shipping and re-construction of a second-hand plant from the US to produce ethylene dichloride (EDC) (capacity of 230,000 tpa) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) (capacity of 204,000 tpa), the primary raw materials for the PVC plants;- the construction of a new chlor-alkali plant which will produce caustic soda (capacity of 106,000 tpa) and chlorine (capacity of 94,200 tpa), the latter being a primary raw material for the VCM production; and - utilities infrastructure. This facility’s primary role will be to provide the chlorine necessary for EAPCL’s VCM production, a primary raw material for PVC; caustic soda will also be produced as a saleable product as part of the manufacturing process. The project is estimated to cost $221 million.