OREANDA-NEWS. DowAksa Advanced Composites Holdings B.V. and the Nanotechnology Center of Composites (NCC), a joint project between  Holding Company Composite (HCC) and the Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs (FIEP, a member of the RUSNANO Group), signed an investment agreement today for 134 Million Rubles (USD 4.3 Million USD).

As a result of the agreement, each party – DowAksa, HCC and FIEP – will own one third of NCC’s total chapter capital.

Heinz Haller, Dow's Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, and President for Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well as Chairman of the DowAksa Board of Directors; Anatoly Chubais, RUSNANO CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board; Mehmet Ali Berkman, Deputy Board Chairman of DowAksa, and Leonid Melamed, CEO of Holding Company Composite, signed the agreement during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

This agreement is another important milestone in the parties' cooperation, emphasizing the intentions outlined in the MOU which was signed at the 2013 World Economic Forum and in the terms of investments agreement signed at the Composites without Borders Conference in November of last year.

“The signing of the agreement marks a significant step forward in DowAksa’s  innovation and will help us maximize value as a leading science company, benefiting our customers in Russia and the local economy, while contributing to DowAksa’s global growth,” said Heinz Haller. “The agreement will accelerate DowAksa’s efforts in growing and participating in the Russian carbon fiber composite market with a specific focus on Oil & Gas and Infrastructure applications. “At the same time, DowAksa will provide access to global market channels, exposure to international partners, and the opportunity to provide services to an international audience.”

“It is very important to bring the strengths of DowAksa and NCC together to address the global challenges in the market of carbon fiber composites which are increasingly used in the energy, construction, automotive, and oil and gas industries. The Russian government emphasizes the importance of the composite industry by establishing NCC which also provides R&D and pilot manufacturing support to start-ups and others who are willing to make innovations in equipment related to the composite industry,” commented Mehmet Ali Berkman. “DowAksa’s engineers together with their counterparts in NCC will develop revolutionary scientific applications of composite materials which will help to increase the efficiency, productivity and value-add of them. An additional benefit coming from these applications will be reduced emissions to help protect the environment.”

“DowAksa is a recognized leader in the production of carbon fiber. We are very interested in such a powerful partner with a high potential in the production of world-class technologies. We expect that our partnership project based on the Nanotechnology Center for Composites will allow us to effectively apply DowAksa’s experience and knowledge, as well as access to new global market channels to develop products made of composite materials that will be produced within NCC’s project," commented Leonid Melamed

The Nanotechnology Center of Composites will leverage existing partner engineering assets to help develop leading positions in Russia, CIS and other countries for prominent sectors such as oil & gas, mineral extraction and offshore exploration. The first production line in the Center, equipped with a high-tech scientific laboratory and a one-of-a-kind multi-axial machine, has been launched to produce polymer composite materials used in construction, energy, and IT. The second production line is to be launched soon. The Center will showcase the latest technologies of polymer composites processing in Russia, supplying both the Russian domestic and global markets.

Holding Company Composite was founded in 2009. Our key objective is to develop a market for composites in Russia. The Holding unites companies producing high-modulus and high-strength carbon fiber and carbon fiber-based fabrics of ROSATOM, as well as manufacturing high-quality prepregs from domestic raw materials. Our products are used in aerospace, wind energy, construction, transportation, shipbuilding, power industry, and medicine. We are setting up a highly efficient environmentally friendly production based on innovative continuous and discontinuous fiber production technologies. We are creating a market for the new generation composite materials in Russia. Our mission is to achieve leadership in production, sales and engineering of the new generation of composites on the Russian market.