October 26 (SeeNews) - Dutch-based aluminium producer Vimetco said on Friday it signed a partnership agreement with British-Romanian joint venture InterAgro to build a 1,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Romania.
Part of the generated power will be delivered to Vimetco's aluminium smelter Alro, based in Slatina, southwestern Romania, the company said in a statement.
The plant is scheduled to become operational in 2012. Its location was not immediately known.
"The plant will offer a safe source of energy for Vimetco and will allow us to control better our power costs", Vimetco CEO Christian Wuest, said in the statement.
Vimetco, formerly known as Marco Industries, owns 84.19% of Romania's sole producer of primary aluminium, Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) data showed. Vimetco has invested more than $150 million in Alro since 2002. Alro's production capacity increased to 262,056 tonnes at the end of last year from 187,052 tonnes when Vimetco began to invest in it.
InterAgro is a privately owned British-Romanian company founded in 1994, mainly involved in the production of cereals and technical plants, and foreign trade, focused on the export of fertilisers.
Alro shares closed down 0.54% at 9.25 lei ($3.969/2.7593 euro) on the BVB on Friday.
(1 euro = 3.3477 Romanian lei)