Oltchim unveils $200m investment plan

Chemical plant Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea will run a major medium-term investment programme, targeting the carbon monoxide production, a lime plant, construction materials and chemical products, said Oltchim general manager, Constantin Roibu.

Olchim”s investment list also includes a facility for carbon dioxide purification and production of carbon monoxide, a raw material used by some of Oltchim”s plants.

The plant”s management has recently said it planned to build its own lime plant, with a capacity of 400 tonnes per day. The value of this investment is put at about 6 million euros.

Oltchim has an investment plan that also includes the development of other businesses in the field of construction materials, and the chemical products sector, respectively.

Overall, funds to be invested in the medium term are likely to amount to 200 million euros, said Constantin Roibu.

The company also said it aimed to raise capital worth more than 25 million euros from investment funds, to the end of boosting production capacity on the segment of construction materials and to finance investments aimed at the chemical products manufacturing.

Oltchim plans to set up joint ventures with the investment funds that will voice interest in the projects.

The investments would target production facilities for vinyl poly-chloride profiles (PVC) used as carpentry frames for thermo-insulating windows, thermo-insulating panels produced by Oltchim and used as construction materials, and for polyesters, inclusively used for the production of PET bottles.

The three joint ventures would secure sales for part of Oltchim”s production. PVC is the main product of the plant. In recent years, the company has tried to expand vertically by manufacturing higher value added products, based on PVC, and future investments would be part of this strategy.

Roibu also announced that Oltchim, one of the biggest industrial power consumers, was interested in the privatisation of CET Ramnicu-Valcea, aiming to become a shareholder.

Oltchim derived net income worth 21.8 million RON (6 million euros) in the first half of the year, more than one third lower as compared with the corresponding period of last year.

The company”s turnover rose by 10%, reaching 695 million RON (193 million euros), from 631.7 million RON (175 million euros) in the first half of last year.

The main shareholder in the plant is the state, through the Ministry of Economy and Trade. The ministry is to put Oltchim for sale again, after several failed attempts at selling it to strategic investors. roxana.petrescu@zf.ro