Egypt's Carbon Holdings plans to begin the construction of a $7 billion petrochemical complex in the second half of 2015, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Basil El-Baz said.

The Tahrir Petrochemicals Complex, located at Ain Sokhna on the Gulf of Suez, will start operating by early 2019, El-Baz said in an interview in Cairo yesterday. The facility will process 4 million metric tons of naphtha annually, producing polyethylene to be sold locally or exported, he said.

"Egypt doesn't have any of these facilities," El-Baz said. "As a consequence, we haven't seen the production of basic goods such as fishing lines and automotive tires." Polyethylene is used in plastics.

Carbon Holdings is in talks to secure a $4 billion loan to help fund the complex, he said. Negotiations are being held with the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Export-Import bank of Korea, Korea Trade Insurance Corp., Italian Export Credit Agency and U.S. Overseas Private Investing Corporation.

El-Baz said the company will start operating a separate polypropylene plant in Suez in January 2015.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tamim Elyan in Cairo at telyan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.netRachel Graham, James Herron