Russia's Uralkhimplast gets government support for methanol unit

12 March 2010 10:20  [Source: ICIS news]

MOSCOW (ICIS news)--Local authorities will support Uralkhimplast’s plan to build a new 600,000 tonne/year methanol production facility at the firm’s Nizhny Tagil site, the Sverdlovsk regional government said in a statement released on Friday.

Earlier this week, Uralkhimplast said the new 600,000 tonne/year methanol facility would be built at a cost of roubles (Rb) 13bn ($441m, €322m).

Uralkhimplast, based at Nizhny Tagil in the Sverdlovsk region of the Urals, is one of Russia's major producers of synthetic resins and plastic products.

In October 2009, the company said the methanol project was due to be funded by Russia's state-run VEB bank, using a loan from the China Development Bank (CDB).

Uralkhimplast first announced plans to build a 400,000 tonnes/year methanol plant in cooperation with gas trader Itera in 2005. Uralkhimplast and Itera formed a joint venture, UralMethanolGroup, on a parity basis to develop the project.

The new plant was originally expected onstream in 2010 at an estimated cost of €260m, but in January 2009, Uralkhimplast and Itera said they had postponed their plans. Itera is no longer involved with the project.

($1 = €0.73, $1 = Rb29.47)

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By: Sergei Blagov
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