>@Mercedes Landete/EIB

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted CEPSA a EUR 70 million loan to finance projects designed to optimise the company’s aromatics production process at its refineries in San Roque (Cadiz) and Palos de la Frontera (Huelva) and Huelva. The agreement signed today in Madrid by EIB Vice-President Román Escolano and CEPSA’s CEO, Pedro Miró, is aimed at helping to achieve improvements in the output of CEPSA’s facilities and increased energy savings throughout the production process.

This project will have benefits not only for Andalusia but for the whole of the European Union. The production of aromatics has a big social and economic impact in the EU, in terms of both contribution to GDP and job creation. Aromatics are raw materials for the manufacturing of numerous basic products in our daily lives, including electronic components, detergents, synthetic fibres and even pharmaceuticals.

The EIB loan that we have signed today with CEPSA will enable the company, one of the leading Spanish multinationals in the sector, to continue creating jobs in Andalusia”, said Román Escolano today at the signing ceremony. “But as well as benefiting the Spanish economy, this loan will help to make a key EU industry more sustainable and more competitive in the global market ”.

In the words of CEPSA’s CFO, Álvaro Badiola: “The EIB’s participation in the financing of these projects represents support for CEPSA’s investment plans to improve the output and energy efficiency of our production processes in the key region for us that is Andalusia. At the same time, this operation forms part of the company’s strategy to diversify its sources of finance”.