MOSCOW, July 11 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow-based EuroChem, one of the world’s top ten fertilizer producers, intends to build a $1.5 billion fertilizer plant in the United States with financial support from the state of Louisiana, the company said this week.
The ammonia and urea production plant in Louisiana will manufacture fertilizer products for distribution in the United States and on other markets, the company said in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday.
“The Americas accounted for approximately a quarter of our sales in 2012 and we expect its contribution to continue to grow,” the statement quoted EuroChem CEO Dmitry Strezhnev as saying at a press conference in Baton Rouge.
“We therefore see it as a next logical step to establish our production closer to our customers. Louisiana brings together all the right ingredients, from its favorable political and economic environment, to the availability of energy, labor, infrastructure and logistics, to fulfill our strategic vision in one of the world’s largest agricultural markets.”
EuroChem and Louisiana Economic Development (LED) officials have been in talks over the planned construction of EuroChem’s plant there since 2012, the company said.
To secure the project, the state has offered EuroChem a competitive incentives package, including a number of tax exemptions, the statement said. The incentives offered by Louisiana include a $6 million performance-based grant to compensate the cost of improving site infrastructure, the Associated Press quoted an LED spokesman as saying.
LED estimates that once completed, the plant will generate approximately 200 new jobs and over 1,300 jobs in related sectors, the EuroChem statement said, adding that the company expects to finalize its decision on the location and other details of the facility within the next year.
Construction is expected to last four years, during which EuroChem expects to employ approximately 2,000 new construction workers, it said.
