Export dependence likely to push forward growth of Egypt’s petrochemicals sector: Fitch Ratings
Updated 5/3/2023 11:25:00 AM
Arab Finance: Fitch Ratings is expecting Egypt’s petrochemicals sector to maintain growth in the future as the country moves from being import-dependent to become export-oriented, the Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on May 2nd, citing a report by the rating agency.
The report referred to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources’ plan of studying and executing 11 new projects in the petrochemicals sector with $19 billion in investments during the period from 2020 to 2035.
Through these projects, the North African state aims to benefit from its unexploited resources to boost the local market’s growth and pave the way for accessing international markets, the rating agency highlighted.
Moreover, the report stated that the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM) is currently studying several projects as part of the national plan for petrochemicals for 2020-2035.
The projects include the soda ash project with a $420 million investment as well as the metal silicon project and titanium dioxide project with investments of $300 million.
The report also showed that Egypt’s exports of petrochemicals, chemicals, and fertilizers grew 45% year on year in 2021 to hit $6.7 billion, surpassing the Chemical and Fertilizers Export Council’s forecast of $5.8 billion.
This growth in exports was driven by an uptick in the production of natural gas, in addition to higher prices, the report added.
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