Egypt’s OCI looks to become global player | beyondbrics | FT.com

It may be a small deal, but the acquisition by Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt’s largest listed company, of a Dutch firm which owns and operates ammonia tanks in the port of Rotterdam is part of a global expansion strategy aimed at placing OCI among the world’s top fertilizer producers.

MICRO Chemie B.V., the company which has just been purchased by OCI, has a 25-year renewable lease on an ammonia terminal in Rotterdam with river and rail access allowing delivery to France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

In March, OCI bought an ammonia plant in the Netherlands and it says it is already the second largest nitrates producer on the continent. The company’s plants in Egypt and the Netherlands have a combined capacity of 5m tonnes of nitrogen-based fertilizer, but this figure is set to rise to 8m in 2012 when its new plant in Algeria comes fully on stream.