Basic Chemical Industries launches MST, Ferric Chloride operations

Basic Chemical Industries (BCI) launched on Wednesday commercial operations of its Metal Surface Treatment and Ferric Chloride projects.

The financial impact of the Metal Surface Treatment project will be recorded in results for the second quarter of 2015, according to the company’s filing on Tadawul, Saudi Arabia’s bourse.

Ferric Chloride is expected to generate SAR 16 million in revenues and SAR 4 million net profit during the first year of operations. Sales are forecasted to rise to SAR 30 million in the following years. Net profit is estimated to reach SAR 10 million in the second year of operation.

According to Argaam, BCI had previously delayed commercial operations for its Metal Surface Treatment project to Nov. 2014 in order to install necessary equipment.

The Saudi-based company previously announced that it would launch a pilot run for its Ferric Chloride operations for two months, as the commercial operations would commence in the beginning of 2015 with a production capacity of more than 50,000 tons per year.