China Development Bank to extend $110 mln for building cement plant in Uzbekistan
TASHKENT. Feb 22 (Interfax) - China Development Bank will be extending the Uzbek-U.S. joint venture Rakhnamo-Nur a credit of $110 million for the building of a cement factory in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, the general director of Uzstroymaterialy, which unites all the republic's construction industry enterprises, Akbar Mukhiddinov told the press on Friday.
"Under the Chinese credit are provided guarantees by the American bank JP Morgan, and a loan agreement with China Development Bank may be signed in March or April," Mukhiddinov said. The general contractor for building the plant will be China National Technical Import & Export Corporation, with which a contract will be inked during a month's time, he said.
Construction is planned to wrap up by the end of next year.
Uzbekistan will start up four enterprises to produce ceramic tile before the end of 2013, Mukhiddinov said. The project, which cost $48.6 million, will provide capacity to produce 9.8 million square meters of ceramic tile a year.
Russia's Invest Realty LLC will complete construction in Samarkand of one of the plants before the end of the year. The $27-million plant will have capacity to produce 2.7 million square meters of tile a year.
Iranian EMG is building a plant in Tashkent region that will have capacity to produce 2.1 million square meters a year. The plant will cost about $12 million.
In 2009, Rakhnamo-Nur, 75% of which belongs to the U.S. investment company Platinum Partners, began building a cement factory with designed capacity of 1 million tonnes a year in Karakalpakstan. Financing for the $128 million project was planned using the joint venture's own funds and credit resources.
The JV halted the construction last year due to problems with financing. The project has already cost about $20 million.
Uzbekistan has six operating cement plants with combined capacity of 6.5 million tonnes. The biggest are OJSC Kyzylkumtsement (3.08 million tonnes), OJSC Akhangarantsement (1.74 million tonnes), and OJSC Kuvasaitsement (920,000 tonnes).
Uzbekistan produced 6.78 million tonnes of cement last year, 1.3% more than the year before.