Investment in the petrochemical sector of the central Asian states of the former Soviet Union is accelerating, with contracts awarded for major projects in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Japanese companies and lending institutions play significant roles in both projects.
Uzbekistan project
Uzbekistan's government has let a contract valued at about ¥80 billion to a group of Nissho Iwai Corp., Mitsui & Co., Toyo Engineering Corp., and ABB Asea Brown Boveri for a petrochemical plant in Uzbekistan.
The group will build a plant with annual production capacity of 140,000 tons of ethylene and 125,000 tons of polyethylene that will use natural gas produced in the central Asian country. The plant site will be about 400 km southwest of the nation's capital of Tashkent.
The entire project-from design through construction to provision of operational guidance-will be handled by the consortium.
Construction will begin in the spring, with a target start-up date of early 2001.
Japan, Germany, and the U.S. will provide a syndicated loan to Uzbekistan, which is suffering from a capital shortage.
Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry and German financial institutions will line up trade insurance to cover the project.
Azerbaijan revamp
Japan's Export-Import Bank will extend ¥9.2 billion in financing for a construction contract awarded to Nichimen Corp. and Chiyoda Corp. to modernize an ethylene plant in Azerbaijan.
A representative from the bank was to meet in Tokyo late last month with Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev to extend the 10-year syndicated loan-the Ex-Im Bank's first loan to the central Asian country.
The financing will be done by the Ex-Im Bank and a private banking group led by Sanwa Bank. The interest rate has not been disclosed.
The plant, in Sumgait north of the capital of Baku, produces 260,000 metric tons/year of ethylene. Completion of the plant revamp is set for 1999.
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