Sunday, August 17, 2008

IDE to build $150m desalination plant in Australia

Israel-based IDE Technologies announced last week that it signed a deal to build a desalination plant worth over €100 million in Australia. IDE is a joint venture of Israel Corp.'s Israel Chemicals unit and the Delek Group.

IDE did not identify the company that it is building the desalination plant for, stating only that it is a "major industrial client." In January, Reuters reported that IDE won a tender to build a desalination plant worth more than $100 million as part of an iron-mining project in western Australia.

The 140,000 cubic meter per day facility, which will be based on reverse osmosis technology, is slated for completion in 2010.

"It establishes IDE's presence on the Australian continent, strengthens its worldwide deployment in line with the company's business strategy of global expansion and strengthens IDE's position as a world leader in the seawater desalination market," said Avshalom Felber, CEO of IDE.

The company said the project is one of the most complex in the world and one of the largest of its kind supplied by IDE to a foreign client. According to IDE, the quality of the feed water necessitates more precise and complex treatment than in similar installations elsewhere.

IDE said the Australian client will use the desalinated water for production processes and drinking water.

Established in 1965, IDE specializes in commercial applications of thermal and membrane technologies for desalinating and converting sea and brackish water for drinking and process water. The company has supplied more than 385 plants of different types and capacities in 40 countries, and said the plants produce more than 1.6 million cubic meters per day.

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