Largest urea plant of country remains inoperative

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CHITTAGONG, Nov 30 (bdnews24.com): In the backdrop of the increasing demand for fertiliser countrywide, the production at Chittagong Urea Fertilisers Ltd, the largest urea producing plant in the country, has been remaining suspended for the last 19 days.
The plant, which supplies fertiliser to at least 22 southern districts, was shut down on Nov 11 due to maintenance work undertaken along the Bakhrabad gas supply line.
Since then the national fertilizer production loss has amounted on an average to 1,500 tonnes a day.
CUFL managing director Nazim Uddin told the news agency: "We began operations again on Nov 18, as the gas line was repaired. But glitches in the plant's reformer stopped production again."
"BCIC (Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation) and Chinese engineers and technicians are working hard to make the plant operative," the MD said.
"It may take another 4-5 days to render the factory productive again."
"The government may have to import fertiliser in case we seriously fail to make up for the lost production," Nazim said.
General manager Md Shah Jahan said the plant had failed to produce about 46,000 tonnes of fertiliser since July due to gas supply crises.
"If the gas supply situation doesn't improve and the plant fails to meet its production target of 4.4 lakh tonnes (440 thousand), CUFL will face considerable financial loss," the GM said.
"And the government will have to import the required fertiliser at a cost of more than Tk 100 crore (1.0 billion)."
He believed it would be possible to meet immediate demands during the ongoing season with the existing stock of 28,000 tonnes of fertiliser.
Jamal Hossain, the CUFL union's general secretary, was concerned that the workers would be deprived of the five per cent bonus for fulfilling the production target, if the current stalemate was not taken care of urgently.
Preferring not to be named, a CUFL official said the factory has suffered about 300-350 tonnes of production loss daily since the start of the year due to gas supply glitches alone.