Poland’s Grupa Azoty has signed a long-term loan agreement for up to €145 million with the European Investment Bank (EIB), which will help it fund major projects.

“Our agreements with the EIB form an integral part of Grupa Azoty’s long-term corporate financing package intended to fund our general corporate needs, including strategy implementation, CAPEX and R&D programs,” said Wojciech Wardacki, president of Grupa Azoty’s management board.

Grupa Azoty said that under the new agreement, the EIB will continue to finance large investment projects of key importance to the company, including upgrading the Pulawy nitric acid plant and the Tarnow compounding plant. The bank will also provide financial support for R&D projects in the period 2018-2021.

The loan, Grupa Azoty’s second in three years with the EIB, is for a term of up to 10 years, with repayments to start within three years of disbursement.

In 2017, two large projects at Tarnow went into operation under the first loan agreed in 2015. These were a second polyamide (PA) plant, with a capacity of 80,000 t/y, and a second mechanical granulation plant. The company said it is pursuing three other projects that are being co-financed with the bank under the 2015 agreement, including the construction of a fertilizer mechanical granulation unit in Pulawy.

Last April, Grupa Azoty Pulawy announced it had signed a licensing deal with Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions for nitric acid technology. A fifth nitric acid unit is being installed at Pulawy and the existing four lines are being modernized. At the time, Andrzej Skwarek, member of Grupa Azoty Pulawy’s management board, said the company planned to invest more than 1 billion Polish zloty in nitrate fertilizers by 2021.