Methanex Corporation announced recently that its Board of Directors reached a unanimous final investment decision to construct a 1.8 MT methanol plant in Geismar, Louisiana adjacent to its existing Geismar 1 and Geismar 2 facilities. Construction on the Geismar 3 plant will begin later this year and operations are targeted in the H2 of 2022. The cost of the project is expected to be between USD1.3 USD1.4 B including costs of approximately USD60 M incurred to date.
The Company has a robust and flexible financing plan for the Geismar 3 project. It has arranged committed financing for the project with a new five-year USD800 M construction facility and for the renewal of the existing USD300 M revolving credit facility, which replaces the Company’s existing revolving facility, to provide further liquidity. Both facilities have been arranged with a syndicate of banks and will expire in July 2024. In addition, the Company expects to access the debt capital markets during the H2 of 2019 to pre-fund approximately USD250 M of the Geismar 3 2020 expenditures and to repay the Company’s USD350 M aggregate principal amount of bonds due in December 2019.
