China Eximbank provides $174.25 million buyer's credit loan for Belarusian Cement Plant Construction Project (Linked to Record ID#66650, ID#43265, ID#42171, and ID#42179)

Project narrative

On November 5, 2007, China Eximbank created a $500 million line of credit for the Government of Belarus to fund the construction of three all-dry cement plants (captured in Umbrella Record ID#42171). Then, on October 29, 2008, China Eximbank and the Government Belarus signed a $174.25 million buyer’s credit loan agreement (China Eximbank loan ID# BLA0806 and Government of Belarus loan ID# 12-2-15/10П) for the Belarusian Cement Plant Construction Project. This loan carried the following terms: a 10 year maturity, a 3 year grace period, and an annual interest rate of 6.6%. The Government of Belarus issued a sovereign guarantee in support of the loan. The proceeds of the loan were on-lent from the Government of Belarus to a state-owned company called Belarusian Cement JSC (ОАО «Белорусский цементный завод»), which in turn used the loan proceeds to finance a commercial contract [№ CITICICC-1202А-BL] that it signed with CITIC Construction on December 31, 2007. The purpose of this project was to help Belarusian Cement JSC establish a second (all-dry) production line with a daily production capacity of 5,000 tons of cement. CITIC Construction was the EPC contractor responsible for implementation. On 11 September 2009, according to the Belarusian News Agency, the Belarusian State Supervisory Committee announced that China CITIC Group had begun construction of the cement plant. The second production line was officially completed and put into production on August 10, 2012. This project passed a performance audit and it was officially handed over to the owner of the cement plant on November 30, 2012.