Russia's Penoplex Group has opened a plant in Azerbaijan's Hajikabul district to manufacture thermal insulation panels, Azernews reports, citing Interfax.

The company invested AZN18.4 million (about $10.8 million) in the Penoplex Prikavkazye plant, which was built on 6.7 hectares in the Hajikabul industrial quarter, Azerbaijan's Economic Zones Development Agency reported.

The plant will export 40% of its products, the agency said.

Penoplex Spb LLC, the group's St. Petersburg division, began the project to build the extruded polystyrene (XPS) thermal insulation plant in Azerbaijan at the end of 2019, when the cost of the project was estimated at $6.5 million. The plant was expected to have capacity to produce 100,000 cubic meters of product per year, primarily for the markets of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia.

Penoplex Group, founded in 1998, manufactures XPS thermal insulation and also has facilities to produce polystyrene, the feedstock for insulation, waterproofing and finishing materials, single-use dishes and packaging. The group has plants in Kirishi, Leningrad Region; Taganrog, Rostov Region; Cheremkhovo, Irkutsk Region; Zavolzhye, Nizhny Novgorod Region; Novomoskovsk, Tula Region; as well as in Perm, Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk and Kazakhstan.

The Hajikabul industrial quarter has 14 residents that have invested more than AZN163 million.

The official exchange rate for October 30 is AZN1.70/$1.