Arvi, Kazfosfat discuss creation of compound fertilizer JV in Stepnogorsk
TARAZ/VILNIUS. May 22 (Interfax/BNS) - The Lithuanian company group Arvi and Kazakhstan's TOO Kazfosfat have begun negotiating the creation of a joint venture for the production of compound fertilizers in Stepnogorsk, Akmola Region, in Kazakhstan, Kazfosfat General Director Mukash Iskandirov has told Interfax.
"We are negotiating over opening new production [facilities] for making compound fertilizers in Stepnogorsk. American technologies are planned for use in the creation of production," Iskandirov said. "The negotiation process has still not been completed, so it would be premature to speak of the timeframe for launch or the amount of investment to be raised," he said.
The president of the Arvi group, Vidmantas Kucinskas, told the Baltic News Service that the group and a U.S. company he did not identify are investing 15-20 million euros in the reconstruction of a Kazfosfat plant in the period until 2015.
"Together with [our] American partners, we are renewing the plant for them. We will receive shares, and perhaps invest a little ourselves. Our goal is to receive 50% of the stock in this plant," Kucinskas said.
The U.S. party will be responsible for the technological aspects of the reconstruction, he said.
The Arvi group produces fertilizers, animal feeds, and sugar, processes meat, utilizes livestock waste, and expedites cargo. There are more than twenty companies in the group operating in Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Romania, Ukraine, and Croatia.
Kazfosfat's main lines of business are doing geological prospecting work, producing and processing phosphorous ore, producing and selling yellow phosphorous and its derivatives, phosphorous-based mineral fertilizers and feed phosphates made from raw mineral material from industrial production.