China Eximbank provides $64.1 million buyer’s credit loan for 100 MW Mollasadra Hydropower Station Project

On September 7, 2002, China Eximbank and Saderat Bank signed a $64,175,000 buyer’s credit loan agreement for the 100 MW Mollasadra Hydropower Station Project. The borrowing terms of the loan are unknown. The proceeds of the loan were used to finance 85% of the cost of a $75.5 million commercial (EPC) contract with China Gezhouba Group Company Limited. The Government of Iran initially signed a commercial contract in November 1999 with the MS-CAITEC joint venture formed by China Anhui International Economic and Technical Cooperation Corporation. However, China Gezhouba Group Company Limited later replaced MS-CAITEC as the EPC contractor. The purpose of the project was to build a 72-meter-high, 630-meter-long dam with a storage capacity of 440 million cubic meters, a (2x50MW) hydropower station with a total installed capacity of 100,000 kilowatts, and related auxiliary projects. More specifically, the project involved the construction of a rockfill dam, an open spillway, a power station diversion tunnel, a ground plant, and a switch station. The project site is located 184 kilometers northwest of Shiraz city, the capital of Fars Province, and is built on the Kore River near the town of Sedeh in Eqlid City. Construction began on September 7, 2002. The project was officially completed on April 17, 2007. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the project completion ceremony.

Additional details

1. The Chinese project title is 莫拉萨德拉大坝和水电站. The Persian project title is افزودن اطلاعات جدید or سد ملاصدرا. 2. China Eximbank financed 85% of the value of the EPC contract and denominated the loan in USD. Therefore, AidData assumes that China Eximbank issued a buyer’s credit loan to support this project. The reported face value of the loan ($64,175,000) is based on 85% of the value of the EPC contract ($75,500,000). 3. The China Eximbank loan that supported this project is not included in the Overseas Development Finance Dataset that Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center published in December 2020.

Number of official sources

6

Number of total sources

14