VELIKY NOVGOROD, October 27 (RIA Novosti) - Germany’s Humboldt Wedag GmbH (KHD), a global construction technology leader, will build a cement factory worth 18 billion rubles ($618.2 million) in northwest Russia, the regional administration said on Tuesday.

The Cologne-based company will build the factory in the Novgorod Region in partnership with the St. Petersburg-based Cement company.

“Investors from Russia and Germany are going to invest an amount equivalent to 18 billion rubles to create a high-tech production facility over the next three years,” the administration said.

The facility will produce some 6,000 tons of cement per day and create about 700 additional jobs in the region.

Investors hope that the construction of the cement factory on the border between the Novgorod and Leningrad regions will facilitate the development of housing construction and associated sectors in several regions of the country.

The facility is expected to come online August 2012.