BaselCement, Itera to form JV to build cement plants
BaselCement, a division of Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element, has signed a cooperation agreement with Itera-Invest-Stroi that calls for building new cement plants in CIS countries and in the Urals, BaselCement said in a press release.
The partnership with one of the largest industrial companies in the country will enable BaselCement to quickly begin production of cement and aggregates in new regions, while enabling Itera to enter the cement market.
The agreement between BaselCement and the construction division of oil and gas company Itera was signed at the end of December. It calls for the development of non-metal deposits and construction of cement plants in Armenia, Belarus, Turkmenistan and in the Urals.
According to preliminary agreements with Itera-Invest-Stroi, the companies will build three or four new cement plants with combined capacity of 5 million to 8 million tonnes per year by the end of 2012.
Last October, BaselCement and Austrian construction company Strabag announced the creation of a joint venture to produce cement and aggregates in Russia and Eastern Europe. Strabag contributed a cement plant being built in Hungary, while Basel contributed existing cement plants in Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as plants still under construction.
"Itera is one of the biggest players on the country’s energy market and has strong positions in a number of CIS countries and Russian regions. The partnership with Itera will enable us to more quickly build new plants and enter markets where our company does not yet have a presence," BaselCement general director Dmitry Savenkov said.
Cooperation with Itera will improve the efficiency of Basel’s cement business in new regions. Itera has been working for many years in a number of regions, and knowledge of local particulars will accelerate construction. Itera divisions, for example, are building commercial and residential real estate in a number of regions, such as Belarus and Sverdlovsk region. The group’s companies could become customers for the cement of the new plants, while the cement plants will be able to buy fuel from one of the country’s biggest gas companies.
BaselCement experts will be responsible for building, outfitting and launching the new plants.
New projects under the partnership agreement will be financed equally.
BaselCement, founded in 2006, began producing cement and limestone at the end of 2006 at the Sastobe Cement plant in Kazakhstan, which has annual capacity for 300,000 tonnes. The company launched production at the 700,000-tpy Achinsk cement plant in September 2007.
The company is now building another three plants, in Ryazan, Veliky Novgorod and Krasnodar territory.
Published under Cement News
