The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and JBIC IG Partners, jointly advising the Russia-Japan Investment Fund (RJIF, established by RDIF, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and JBIC IG Partners), have agreed, together with AEON Infrastructure Corporation, to collaborate on RJIF’s planned investment to construct a methanol plant and create a chemical cluster in Volgograd, the RDIF’s web page reported.
The agreement was signed on June, 29 in the presence of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. The parties are planning to invest in the project over RUR 50 bln. It is expected that construction will begin in early 2020 and becompletedin late 2022.
AEON’s subsidiary GTM ONE has also signed an off-take contract to supply Japan’s Marubeni Corporation with goods produced by the chemical plant. Engineering works will be carried out in accordance with the agreement reached between GTM ONE and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering. The chemical plant’s annual installed capacityis expected to exceed 1 mio tonnes of methanol.
Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said: “Our Japanese partners appreciate the investment attractiveness of the chemical cluster project in Volgograd. Its products will be highly competitive in the global market due to minimal production costs. We look forward to further collaboration with Japanese companies on new projects in Russia”.