News

Amoco Polymers, Inc., Alpharetta, PA, is selling $16 million services to Chemopetrol a.s. in Litvinov, Czech Republic, to help modernize its petrochemical facilities with the support of an Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) guarantee. Amoco will provide a process license and engineering packages to Chemopetrol to build and operate a polypropylene manufacturing facility, and will market a share of the new plant production.

Chemopetrol also is buying a $26 million process license from Univation Technologies, as agent for Union Carbide Corp., Danbury, CT, to expand its high density polyethylene plant. Training, site support activities, and engineering reports by Stone & Webster International Projects Corp. and Bechtel Power Corp., both of Houston, TX. Ex-Im Bank is guaranteeing $38 million of the $43 million total for this sale.

The Ex-Im Bank financing resulted from a study by the US Trade and Development Agency (TDA) of the petrochemical industry in the Czech Republic.

We are pleased to finance this export transaction, said Ex-Im Bank Chairman James A. Harmon. This transaction is a good example of the coordination and partnership of the trade finance agencies in working to ensure support for US exports.

Chemopetrol's technology purchases are the initial part of a 10-year $342 million petrochemicals modernization. Chemopetrol is a subsidiary of Unipetrol, the Czech oil and petrochemical conglomerate which is one of the top ten companies in the Czech Republic.

Ex-Im Bank is an independent U.S. government agency that assists in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to industrializing and developing markets all over the world by providing loans, loan guarantees, and export credit insurance. In fiscal year 1999, Ex-Im Bank supported $16.7 billion of U.S. exports worldwide.