China Eximbank contributes to $1.018 billion syndicated loan for Kazan Soda Ash and Power Station Project (Linked to Record ID#67350)

Project narrative

On March 25, 2014, a syndicate of banks including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Export-Import Bank of China, and the Singapore Branch of Deutsche Bank signed a $1.018 billion syndicated buyer’s credit loan agreement with Kazan Soda Elektrik Üretim A.Ş. — a special purpose vehicle and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ciner Holding that was established on February 11, 2011 — for the Kazan Soda Ash and Power Station Project. Because the individual contributions of the banks are unknown, AidData assumes equal contributions ($339,333,333) across the three members of the loan syndicate. Record ID#67350 records ICBC’s contribution, and Record ID#92199 records China Eximbank’s contribution. This loan carried the following borrowing terms: a maturity period of 13 years, a grace period of 4 years, and an interest rate of 6-month LIBOR plus a 3.45% margin. Park Holding A.Ş., WE Soda Kimya Yatırımları A.Ş., and Ciner Kimya Yatırımları A.Ş. issued corporate guarantees in support of the loan. The borrower also purchased a buyer’s credit insurance policy from Sinosure. The proceeds of the loan were to be used by Kazan Soda Elektrik Üretim A.Ş. to finance 85% of the cost of a commercial contract with China Tianchen Engineering Co., Ltd. Repayment of the loan commenced on December 20, 2018 and was scheduled to continue until June 20, 2027. The loan’s amount outstanding as of December 31, 2019 was $800.5 million; of December 13, 2020 was $736.8 million. The Kazan Soda Ash and Power Station Project had three components: mining, processing, and cogeneration. While the mining area is located in Kahramankazan district, the production plant is situated within the Sincan district of Ankara Province, northwest of Ankara. It is about 35 km (22 mi) north of Ankara. The plant's mining section supplies the processing section with the trona solution (trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dihydrate), which is the primary source of soda ash. For this, trona ore, laying on average at a depth of 600 m (2,000 ft) underground, is injected with hot water through boreholes drilled, and the dissolved trona is pumped up in the form of trona solution. The plant has five processing lines. The congeneration facility produces 380 MWe electric power and 400 tons of steam. Upon completion, it was expected that the annual production capacity of the plant would reach 2.5 million tons of soda ash (sodium carbonate, Na2CO3) and 200,000 tons of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3), and Ciner Group would become the world's largest soda ash producer (Note: Natural soda ash is more environmentally friendly than the corresponding synthetic alternatives in terms of waste and energy consumption). China Tianchen Engineering Co., Ltd. was the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor responsible for implementation. Financial and contract works for the project started in 2013, and a turnkey construction contract for the processing facility, mining facility, and cogeneration power plant was signed in November 2014. Construction, assembly, and manufacturing activities were carried out in 2015-2016. Provisional acceptance of 271 MW gas turbine unit was achieved on August 18, 2017, and the facility started commercial production on August 19, 2017. This plant was officially opened on January 15, 2018. It is now the biggest soda ash production facility in Europe. With both Kazan Soda and Eti Soda, Ciner Holding has become the leading soda ash producer of the world. The total annual export value of the products from Kazan Soda Elektrik and Eti Soda is $800 million.