|
EBRD lends $9.5 million for Uzbek welding plant
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending $9.5 million
to privately held Uz-Arctech to build a modern plant in Uzbekistan to
manufacture welding electrodes, wires and machines, mainly for export, as well
as for the domestic market.
The project will provide Uzbekistan and the wider region with modern
facilities to manufacture welding products that are used in a wide range of
applications in industries that form the backbone of a country’s
infrastructure and manufacturing capacity. Uz-Arctech will employ about 200
people and manufacture, at full capacity, 16,000 tonnes of welding electrodes,
3,000 tonnes of welding wires and 900 welding machines a year, conforming to
international standards.
Uz-Archtech, established in March this year and based in Tashkent, is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Arctech, a leading producer and exporter of welding
products in Turkey. Vedat Kozinoglu, General Director of Uz-Arctech, said at
the signing ceremony in Istanbul: “Arctech has made a strategic decision to
expand its production base outside of Turkey, to Uzbekistan, where production
costs are considerably lower, in order to supply its existing and potential
clients in export markets such as the FSU, Afghanistan, the Middle East,
eastern Europe and south Asia.”
The seven-year loan will cover 36 per cent of the cost of building the new
plant on the outskirts of the capital, Tashkent. Hubert Pandza, EBRD Business
Group Director for Russia and Central Asia, said the loan is consistent with
the Bank’s strategy for Uzbekistan, which stresses export-oriented
private-sector project finance as a core priority.
|
