Glitches halt production at Ctg Urea fertiliser factory for 81 days

Production at Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd (CUFL) has remained stopped for more than two and a half months thanks to renovation due to some technical glitches, causing Tk1crore loss daily.

According to the CUFL authorities, the factory can produce 11,000 tonnes of fertiliser per day. At Tk20,000 per tonne of fertiliser, the factory produces fertiliser worth Tk2.2 million daily.

On 22 November last year, production at the ammonia plat of the state-owned urea fertiliser company was suspended due to a fire hit at the factory.

However, there are more than 900 employees in the management of the factory. The government has to pay their salaries despite such a long closure of the production.

According to CUFL sources, since the fire incident at CUFL's ammonia plant on 22 November last year, the plant has been closed due to mechanical glitches. Since then, production at the factory remained halted for 81 consecutive days till 11 February.

Earlier in 2019-20, the factory was closed for about one and a half years due to technical glitches. Due to the same reason, the production of the factory was stopped for two and a half months from December 2021.

Then the factory resumed its production again on 20 February last year. In July last year, the state-owned Fertiliser Factory Ltd temporarily stopped production for several days as the gas crisis worsened.

CUFL Managing Director Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said the factory is not able to go into production because the repair work has not been completed yet. The factory will go into production by 27-28 February after the renovation is completed.

A factory usually remains in operation for up to 20 years. But the CUFL is in production for more than 35 years. Mechanical glitches are developed in various parts of the old factory. Due to the expiry of its normal lifespan, the overhaul cost has also increased repeatedly. It has become very difficult to meet all these expenses in these contexts, he added.            

As production dropped, the government put more importance on imports. Some 10.44 lakh tonnes of urea were imported from July to the first week of December this fiscal year.

On 29 October 1987, the government set up the fertiliser factory in Chattogram's Anwara upazila on the south bank of the Karnaphuli River with the technical assistance of Japan.