Gas crisis puts 3 major fertilizer factories in trouble
UNB :
Though gas crisis for residential consumers has reduced slightly, fertilizer producing heavy industries in the port city of Chattogram, considered as a business hub, have been grappling with it for the past nine days suspending production in the three major factories.
The factories are the state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL), CUFL’s DAP-1, and DAP-2 units.
Though Chattogram-based Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company (KAFCO) had been out of production due to lack of gas supply for the past nine days, it returned to production on Saturday morning.
The Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) held the gas crisis and technical glitches in factories responsible for suspension of the production in the commercial city of the country.
It was learned that the technical faults in the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) at Maheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar suspended the gas supply to both residents and industries in the Chattogram on January 19.
Although residential gas supply resumed two days later, industrial factories continued to suffer from the gas crisis, compelling large industrial units to shut down production for the past nine days.
The authorities concerned asked the heavy industries to keep their productions shut until the gas supply normalises fully.
CUFL’s Managing Director Mizanur Rahman said the gas crisis forced them to halt production from the night of January 19. Before the closure, the CUFL used to produce 12,000 metric tonnes of urea fertilizer per day.
In the country, KAFCO and CUFL have been playing a major role in producing fertilizer. The KAFCO alone produces around 5.5 (0.55 million)lakh tonnes of fertilizer and supplies to various warehouses annually, he said.
The total demand for urea fertilizer in the country is 2.7 million tonnes, out of which 1 million tonnes are produced domestically while the rest is imported, the KAFCO officer informed.
He expressed optimism that once the gas supply returns to normal and maintenance work on the industrial machinery concludes, production will resume.
He emphasised that the situation would improve after resolving the gas pressure issue affecting heavy industrial units.
On the other hand, gas distributing Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited (KGDCL) defended them saying that initially the shutdown of KAFCO and CUFL factories was due to technical problems.
