Saudi firm plans €3.7 billion investment in Antwerp

The project submitted by Energy Recovery Systems involves a waste-to-chemicals plant to be installed on the Delwaide Dock on the right bank of the Scheldt. The location is currently occupied by a container terminal operated by the Swiss shipping line MSC, which is slated to move to the new Deurganck dock on the left bank.

A year ago, the Port Authority asked for ideas of how to replace the MSC terminal, and received a number of suggestions. The proposal from Energy Recovery Systems has now won the board’s approval. The new plant takes plastic waste and breaks it down into raw materials – mainly ammonia and urea - for use by the chemicals industry. If the plant takes up all of the 150 hectares available, it would become the largest of its kind in the world.

ERS representatives are scheduled to meet today with Marc Van Peel, Antwerp’s alderman for port affairs, and port authority managing director Eddy Bruyninckx.

Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever sees the project as an important contribution to Antwerp’s future. “An investment of this scope in a wholly new production site within the petrochemical cluster would strengthen the position of the port,” he said. “By working for the sustainability of economic activity in the port, we will be able to better situate Antwerp as an important player in the chemicals sector.”

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