CAIRO: ASEC Engineering, a portfolio company of ASEC Holding, signed three five-year renewable contracts to provide technical management services for cement plants in Qena, Beni Suef and Assuit, according to a statement. A fourth contract, signed in 2000, has been extended for five years and now runs through mid-2016. The contracted projects are set to create more than 750 jobs, the firm said. The first new contract is for a plant owned by El-Nahda Co. for Industries in Qena, while the other two are assets of South Valley Cement Company (SVCC) in Beni Suef and the Building Materials Industrial Company (BMIC) in Assuit. El-Nahda's plant, built by China's TCDRI, has a nominal output of 5,500 tons of clinker per day and is scheduled to go into production in the third quarter of this year. SVCC has a nominal output of 5,000 tons of clinker per day; first clinker was produced on July 7, 2011. ASEC Engineering has been carrying out the engineering work for the SVCC plant since January 2007 and took over the operation and management of the clinker grinding and packing plant in October 2008. In Assiut, ASEC Engineering will provide technical management to BMIC's 5,000 ton-per-day cement plant. Phase one of the agreement, covering clinker grinding and packing, will begin commercial operations in the third quarter of this year; clinker production will begin in the second quarter of 2012. ARESCO, another ASEC Holding portfolio company, is carrying out $130 million contract to provide the civil, electrical and mechanical work for the BMIC plant's construction. ARESCO is also carrying out the steel fabrication as well as testing and commissioning on behalf of BMIC. Group companies ASA and ESACO also play roles in the construction, to which ASEC Engineering was the lead consultant. “These three contracts will see ASEC Engineering conduct the start-up and commissioning works, after which we will take charge of complete plant operations for a period of five years while providing all necessary spare parts and consumables,” said ASEC Engineering Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Galal Yakout. Meanwhile, ASEC also won a five-year renewal of a contract with Sinai Cement Co. to provide services for the 18,700 ton per day clinker plant located in the city of Al-Arish through June 2016; the contract was first signed in 2000. ASEC Engineering and Management is currently engaged in engineering and consulting services for under-construction cement plants including the Arab National Cement Company (ANCC) cement plant in Minya; South Valley Cement Plant in Beni Suef; BMIC Cement Plant in Assuit, as well as a gypsum plant in Ataka, Suez. ASEC Holding is a platform company of Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital, which holds a 49.81 percent stake in ASEC Holding and a 49.79 percent effective ownership in ASEC Engineering.
