Russia’s first world-scale, fully integrated vinyls plant is to be built in a deal signed by Russian petrochemical group Sibur, Solvay and Solvin, the jointly-owned subsidiary of Solvay and BASF.
The facility in Kstovo, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, will have capacity to produce 330,000tpa of vinyl resin and 225,000tpa of caustic soda. The total investment is expected to cost ˆ650m and the plant would start up in 2010.
Solvay said the purpose of the investment is to serve the fast growing markets in the Commonwealth of Independent States. It is designed to accommodate a possible expansion bringing total capacity to 510,000tpa of vinyl resin and 335,000tpa of caustic soda.
The plant’s location will be near to Sibur’s cracker in Kstovo. The Russian company, which is an affiliate of Gazprom, is planning to expand the cracker so it can meet the ethylene requirements of the new vinyls plant, said Solvay.
Solvin and Sibur Holding will create a joint venture company called RusVinyl, in which each partner will hold 50%. In addition, Solvin has entered into talks with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to look at a possible EBRD involvement in the project.
Jacques van Rijckevorsel, Solvay’s general manager of the plastics sector, said: “Solvay will license its best available technology to this plant, with low energy and feedstock consumption; minimum emissions and effluents, and optimum safety and working conditions.”
In Russia, Solvay already employs more than 600 people locally as well as through a number of industrial and research partnerships.
Sibur president Dmitry Konov said: “Solvay has a unique experience in construction and operation of PVC production in Western Europe, South America and South-East Asia. Implementation of high-tech standards, in particular in the sphere of environmental protection, will allow to strengthen our leading position in the Russian market and to create additional value for the shareholders.”
