Eurocement Group and Sberbank of Russia have signed a cooperation agreement to secure funding for the construction of new plants in Russia.

The agreement was signed by Filaret Galchev, Eurocement’s chairman of the board of directors, and Herman Gref, CEO and chairman of Sberbank during the XVIII St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The investment will allow Eurocement to increase its share of dry-process production to 100 per cent by 2018. By the time the programme reaches its conclusion in four years, a total of 63 per cent of all the cement manufactured in Russia will be produced using  dry-process technology.

 The agreement also stipulates that the two parties will cooperate on a whole range of issues, from settlement and cash services to the provision of investment and banking products (via Sberbank CIB1) and other financial services, both for Eurocement group itself and for its affiliates and dependent companies.

Mr Galchev commented: “Eurocement group and Sberbank of Russia have successfully completed global investment projects in the past, such as the construction of a new high-tech cement plant in the Voronezh Region which is unique in the CIS and which was launched in late 2012. The signing of the agreement with Sberbank will serve as a guarantee that the holding company's investment programme will receive sufficient funding until 2018 and that the transition to the active phase of the construction of new cement manufacturing facilities will be made. The implementation of this project will give a significant boost to growth in Russia’s construction sector as a whole, by providing high-quality cement for infrastructural and residential projects in the country.”

Mr Gref added: “By expressing our intention to finance the company’s investment programme, we are once again emphasising one of our key priorities: to provide comprehensive support for the development of Russia’s industrial sector.”

Last week, Eurocement signed a package of contracts with Chinese companies for equipment supply, engineering, installation supervision and employee training services, totalling over US$500m. The new equipment will be used for the construction of six new cement plants in Russia with a total cement capacity of 17Mta.