Gulf Construction Online - $100m chemical plant on way

Regional News

$100m chemical plant on way

01 March 2009

A TOP Bahrain business group has formed a joint venture with an Indian industrial house to set up a $100-million company for the manufacture of aluminium fluoride.

The Pearl Industrial Chemicals Company (PIC) has been established by Bahrain’s EBH Holding and India’s Archean Group of Companies.
PIC will be located at South Alba Industrial Estate and will start production in two years.
The company will create about 150 jobs, of which 100 will go to Bahrainis, said chief executive officer George John.
The environment-friendly plant will be built with the most modern technology over an area of 100,000 sq m of land.
The plant, when fully operational, is expected to produce 60,000 tonnes of aluminium fluoride, which is a critical chemical ingredient in the aluminium smelting process, said Chennai-based Archean Group executive director C G Sethuram.
“This chemical is currently being imported by Alba and other smelters in the region like Sohar Aluminium, Oman,” he said adding that out of 30,000 tonnes to be produced by the plant in the first phase, 18,000 tonnes would be bought by Alba.
The Archean Group has multi-national operations in the field of salt, mining, shipping, construction materials and industrial chemicals covering three continents. It will own a 76-per-cent shareholding in the venture through one of its companies and will manage the establishment of the project and business operations including training of personnel.
One of the key raw materials, sulphur, is locally available and the company has been assured of uninterrupted supply of this material from Bapco, said Sethuram. Other raw materials will be imported.
Apart from aluminium fluoride, the plant will produce co-products like gypsum which will be supplied to the cement industry in GCC countries.
PIC will help smelters like Alba to replace imports totally in the coming years, he added.