BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 5
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
The Tashkent Metallurgical Plant for the production of cold-rolled steel with galvanized and polymer coatings was launched in the Yangikhayot district of the capital, Trend reports referring to the press service of the company.
The total investment in the project amounted to more than 326.6 million euros, of which 226 million euros are a loan from the Russian Export-Import Bank, 147 million euros - own funds, 15.1 million euros - a loan from Asaka Bank. The estimated payback period amounts to about 8.6 years.
The project for the construction of a plant on an area of 49.7 hectares was completed by the Russian Metprom group on a turnkey basis, that is, the group acted as the designer and general contractor of the project. The enterprise is equipped with technologies and automated equipment of the Italian Danieli.
The project was managed by the foreign enterprise SFI Management Group, which fully supervised all stages of construction and its commissioning, including project development, negotiations with all stakeholders, attracting investments, loans, recruiting foreign specialists.
The authors of the project note that the plant belongs to environmentally friendly production and fully complies with international norms and rules in the field of nature protection. It is reported that practically no waste will be generated at the enterprise - the water used in production will be purified by special filters and returned to the technological process, and not discharged into the environment. Air emissions will also be cleaned and minimized.
The products of the plant are planned to be used in the construction industry (production of metal tiles, air ducts, sandwich panels, roll-formed sections, light steel thin-walled structures), in household appliances (body construction) and mechanical engineering (production of car body parts).
Initially, it was planned to build the Tashkent Metallurgical Plant with an annual capacity of 500,000 tons of cold-rolled metal products and put it into operation in August 2019, and then in May 2020.
However, as representatives of Metprom explained at a press conference on December 3, the launch date of the plant was postponed twice. For the first time, the postponement was associated with the introduction of changes to the project aimed at expanding production capacity to 750,000 tons of rolled metal per year. This also led to an increase in the cost of the project to 326.6 million euros.
The second transfer was associated with the coronavirus pandemic. At the first stage, during 2021, the plant should reach a production capacity of up to 500,000 tons. The estimated annual export volume amounts to 100,000 tons (to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and other countries).
The Tashkent Metallurgical Plant (TMP) will initially import raw materials from the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant of Russia. However, at present, the construction of a casting and rolling complex at Uzmetkombinat JSC (cost $800 million) is also underway. With its commissioning, together with TMP, a metallurgical cluster will be created, which will increase the level of localization up to 90 percent.
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