Austria's A-TEC plans Gulf copper smelter -report

VIENNA, April 17 (Reuters) - Engineering and metals firm A-TEC Industries (ATEC.VI) will start building a copper smelter in the Middle East Gulf in 2009, an Austrian magazine reported on Thursday, citing unnamed German banking sources.

A-TEC declined to comment on the report, published in weekly magazine Format.

The magazine said the project would cost some 1 billion euros ($1.58 billion) and that the smelter would bring in 2-3 billion euros through its annual production.

The magazine said A-TEC was working on the project with two Middle Eastern royal families and a German industrial group. The A-TEC Austrian firm would own just over 25 percent.

Building sites in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were being considered for the smelter, which should take 3-4 years to build, Format said, adding raw materials would come from Zambia, the Philippines and Iran.

A-TEC Chief Executive Mirko Kovats told Reuters recently in an interview that he was hoping to visit 30-40 investors in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain und Saudi Arabia. (Reporting by Sylvia Westall and Alexandra Schwarz; editing by Rory Channing)