Ageing fertiliser plants need BMRE
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Naim-Ul-Karim
Production capacity of the country's plants producing urea fertiliser, the principal input needed to boost yield in agriculture sector, is fast diminishing as many of the factories have outlived their longevity, sources said.
They said production in five of the six urea factories has fallen alarmingly. These factories have been designed to go for balancing, modernisation, rehabilitation and expansion (BMRE) after expiry of 20-year life span. But many of them have surpassed the period by 5-10 years now.
Sources said the production capacity of six urea fertiliser factories-Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (CUFFL), Jamuna Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (JUFFL), Zia Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (ZFFL), Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (UFFL), Natural Gas Fertiliser Factory Ltd (NGFFL) and Polash Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (PUFL)-- have come down to 1.9 million tonnes from their original capacity of over 2.2 million tonnes.
They said disruption in production in the five factories-CUFFL, JUFFL, ZFFL, UFFL and NGFL-has become a regular phenomenon now.
Of the five factories, sources said, the NGFL, established in 1962, was shut down more than three months ago. Some more factories might be closed down in the coming days. This will make the achievement of urea production target difficult this year.
Frequent shutdown of a number of factories has forced the government to revise the production target of urea downward twice this fiscal, the sources said.
They said the government originally set the production target for six factories at 1.9 million tonnes for fiscal 2007-08, but it revised the target twice and ref-fixed it at 1.7 million tonnes. The urea production target in the last fiscal was set at 1.8 million tonnes.
The sources said the plans for the BMRE of NGFFL in Sunamgonj and establishment of a new fertiliser factory in Sirajgonj, have not been possible over the last ten years because of the bureaucratic red tapes.
They said a fertiliser factory could easily be established with the money the government spends on import of urea a year.
When asked, sources said many reputed foreign companies in the past expressed their keen interest to help Bangladesh establish new urea fertiliser factories.
The vested quarters, who are involved in taking "commission" (undue financial benefit) from a section of fertiliser importers, have frustrated any move to set up fertiliser factories, said a concerned official.
He said: "It may now sound incredible that Bangladesh used to export about 0.2 million tonnes of fertiliser on an average a year until 1992 after meeting local demand."
Currently, the local demand for urea fertiliser increased by about 1.0 million tonnes over the past ten years and now stands at over 2.8 million tonnes, but production has not been raised, the official said.
He said: "There is no problem in running more fertiliser factories as we have available raw material - natural gas-for producing urea in the country."
Urea fertiliser supply problem will get worse in the future due to lack of its availability in the international market, sources said.
They said some bidders have expressed their reluctance to supply fertiliser even after receiving work orders from the BCIC because of its short supply in the world market.
Production capacity of the country's plants producing urea fertiliser, the principal input needed to boost yield in agriculture sector, is fast diminishing as many of the factories have outlived their longevity, sources said.
They said production in five of the six urea factories has fallen alarmingly. These factories have been designed to go for balancing, modernisation, rehabilitation and expansion (BMRE) after expiry of 20-year life span. But many of them have surpassed the period by 5-10 years now.
Sources said the production capacity of six urea fertiliser factories-Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (CUFFL), Jamuna Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (JUFFL), Zia Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (ZFFL), Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (UFFL), Natural Gas Fertiliser Factory Ltd (NGFFL) and Polash Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (PUFL)-- have come down to 1.9 million tonnes from their original capacity of over 2.2 million tonnes.
They said disruption in production in the five factories-CUFFL, JUFFL, ZFFL, UFFL and NGFL-has become a regular phenomenon now.
Of the five factories, sources said, the NGFL, established in 1962, was shut down more than three months ago. Some more factories might be closed down in the coming days. This will make the achievement of urea production target difficult this year.
Frequent shutdown of a number of factories has forced the government to revise the production target of urea downward twice this fiscal, the sources said.
They said the government originally set the production target for six factories at 1.9 million tonnes for fiscal 2007-08, but it revised the target twice and ref-fixed it at 1.7 million tonnes. The urea production target in the last fiscal was set at 1.8 million tonnes.
The sources said the plans for the BMRE of NGFFL in Sunamgonj and establishment of a new fertiliser factory in Sirajgonj, have not been possible over the last ten years because of the bureaucratic red tapes.
They said a fertiliser factory could easily be established with the money the government spends on import of urea a year.
When asked, sources said many reputed foreign companies in the past expressed their keen interest to help Bangladesh establish new urea fertiliser factories.
The vested quarters, who are involved in taking "commission" (undue financial benefit) from a section of fertiliser importers, have frustrated any move to set up fertiliser factories, said a concerned official.
He said: "It may now sound incredible that Bangladesh used to export about 0.2 million tonnes of fertiliser on an average a year until 1992 after meeting local demand."
Currently, the local demand for urea fertiliser increased by about 1.0 million tonnes over the past ten years and now stands at over 2.8 million tonnes, but production has not been raised, the official said.
He said: "There is no problem in running more fertiliser factories as we have available raw material - natural gas-for producing urea in the country."
Urea fertiliser supply problem will get worse in the future due to lack of its availability in the international market, sources said.
They said some bidders have expressed their reluctance to supply fertiliser even after receiving work orders from the BCIC because of its short supply in the world market.