Completion of expansions for Misr Fertilizers Production Company's (MOPCO) 1 and 2 factories will take place at the beginning of 2015 through a total of $1.9bn in investments, said a senior official at the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM). The expansions are aimed at adding 1.4m tonnes of urea annually to production rates, and the MOPCO 3 factory currently produces between 630,000-650,000 tonnes of urea annually. The MOPCO 2 project will increase the company's productive capacity to over 1.2m tonnes annually, and the official noted that with the MOBCO 1 project included in the calculations, total production will exceed 2m tonnes per year. He pointed out that workers at the MOPCO plant had reacted positively to the prospect of the 1 and 2 expansions, which had been stalled for the past three years, causing $1.9bn in investment freezing. The expansions were prohibited by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces for three years following demonstrations against the plant which left one dead and several injured. The council also closed the factory's free trade zone as well as entrances and exits to the governorate for a period of 11 days at that time. ECHEM owns 30.75% of the project, while gas holding company EGAS owns 7.62%, GASCO 5.72%, National Investment Bank 2.56%, Nasser Social 2.56%, Misr Insurance 4.28%, Agrium 26%, and Arab Petroleum Investments 3.03%. Public shares amount to the remaining 4.66%.
