Canal Sugar to build grains terminal in Egypt's Damietta

CAIRO: Canal Sugar, owned by Dubai-based Al Khaleej Sugar Refinery, plans to build a pier and grains terminal in Egypt's port city of Damietta with $200 million in investments, its CEO said on Tuesday.

The new terminal will have a discharge capacity of 3,000 tonnes of grains per hour, the CEO, Islam Salem, told a news conference.

The company expects to finalise a contract with the government for the pier and terminal by the end of the year, Salem said in response to a Reuters question.

The project will be partially self-financed, while the remaining funds will come from infrastructure financing institutions, he said.

He declined to give the facility's storage capacity.

The UAE's Al Khaleej Sugar Refinery is the world's largest port-based sugar refinery.

The company plans to complete a beet sugar factory - aimed to be the world's biggest - in Egypt's west Minya in October 2020, Salem said. Production is expected to begin in 2021.

The west Minya project aims to produce 900,000 tonnes of beet sugar a year, at an estimated cost of $1 billion.

In March, Canal Sugar signed a $169 million financing agreement to purchase, construct and operate the west Minya project until a $700 million long-term loan is finalised.

The project also aims to reclaim about 187,850 acres of desert to produce 2 million tonnes of beet sugar annually, as well as other strategic crops such as wheat and corn.