Cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Ukraine

Loan to finance gas turbine at Alchevsk steelworks

A USD 40 million loan from the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) will allow Ukraine's Alchevsk steelworks to become self-sufficient in electricity supply and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by an amount comparable to those of a large European city.

The 7-year-maturity loan agreement between NIB and the steelworks' owner, the Industrial Union of Donbass (ISD), one of the leading East European steel producers, was signed on 16 July in the Bank's headquarters in Helsinki, Finland.

NIB is financing the installation of a combined cycle gas turbine for a cogeneration power plant at the Alchevsk steelworks in eastern Ukraine. This will be a third gas turbine at the steelworks' cogeneration facility with a total capacity of 450 MW. Once the facility is set in operation, the steelworks will be self-sufficient in electricity supply.

The steelworks is undergoing a large-scale modernisation that will increase its output capacity more than two-fold. However, the financed cogeneration power plant using waste gases from the steel production will allow cutting the levels of the greenhouse gas emission by 3.5 million tonnes a year, an amount comparable to the annual emissions of a large European industrial city.

"This project will introduce best international standards of environmental management at the Alchevsk steelworks, which will have a positive impact on the environment in a large industrial region of eastern Ukraine. We hope that this successful modernisation project at Alchevsk will become a pattern other industrial producers in Eastern Europe would follow," says Tore Emanuelsson, Senior Manager of Lending at NIB.

NIB is a multilateral financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody's.

For further information, please contact
Mr Tore Emanuelsson, Senior Manager Lending, at +358 10 618 0244,
Mr Dimitrijs Alehins, Communications Specialist, at +358 10 618 0296,