Swedish green tech company Cinis Fertilizer, Lund, which plans to build its first production facility for fossil-free sulfate of potash (SOP) in Köpmanholmen, south of Örnsköldsvik in Sweden (GM May 20, p. 31), reported that it has signed a seven-year loan agreement of SEK 300 million ($28 million) with Nordea, a Nordic bank, and the Swedish Export Credit Corp. (SEK), which is guaranteed to 80% by the Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN). The loan covers approximately half of the investment cost for the first production facility.
The facility will be powered by fossil-free electricity, and the company said it will be the first in the world to produce a circular mineral fertilizer from waste products from pulp mills and electric car battery production. The first plant is expected to produce 100,000 mt/y of SOP and be commissioned in second-half 2023. A second plant, expected up in mid-2025, would produce 200,000 mt/y.
Germany’s K+S Group has signed a letter of intent for future cooperation for the production of SOP (GM July 1, p. 1). K+S would supply Cinis with potassium chloride, and in return K+S could purchase up to 600,000 mt/y of SOP from Cinis.
K+S has the intention to buy the full SOP capacity from Cinis’s third and fourth production facilities, starting from 2026. The two production facilities are expected to reach full production of 600,000 mt/y of SOP in 2028.
Disbursement of the loan is subject to conditions such as the company securing the remaining capital for the first production plant and obtaining an approved environmental permit.
SEK is a state-owned company that finances Swedish export companies, their subcontractors, and foreign customers on commercial and sustainable terms.
EKN promotes Swedish exports by insuring the risk of not being paid in export transactions.