Votorantim joins Trinidad aluminum smelter project

PORT OF SPAIN, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's Votorantim Group has signed a deal to join Trinidad and Tobago's government-owned Alutrint in a project to build a 125,000 tonnes-per-year aluminum smelter in the Caribbean nation, a Votorantim official said on Friday. The Brazilian industrial conglomerate replaces Venezuela-based aluminum producer Sural, which had a 40 percent stake in the Trinidad project but withdrew due to financing problems earlier this year. Trinidad and Tobago's government has a 60 percent stake in the smelter project. "The project that is being signed with the government of Trinidad and Tobago unites the conditions to make this aluminum smelter one of the most competitive in the world, using the state of the art technology being provided by the Chinese," Marco Palmieri, director of Votorantim Metais Aluminium Business, said prior to a signing ceremony. ChinaExim Bank is providing a credit facility of $400 million for construction of the project whose main contractor is CMEC, also of China, officials said. The smelter complex is estimated to cost between $500 million and $600 million. Alutrint's Chairman Leroy Mayers said Trinidad and Tobago stands to benefit from increasing demand for aluminum products. "It has become the world's second most used metal after steel," Mayers said. (Reporting by Linda Hutchinson-Jafar; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Marguerita Choy)