JUNE 9 2021 (The Bulletin) — Baku Port said that it had started construction work on a fertiliser terminal. The plan is to have the terminal up and running by the end of 2022 to ship fertilisers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea, the South Caucasus and the Black Sea to Europe.
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— This story was published in issue 48 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 16 2021
— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021
TBILISI/AUG.4 (The Bulletin) — Rustavi Azot, Georgia’s largest industrial enterprise, has
been named as the producer in 2013 of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate
that has now exploded in Beirut, killing 145 people and damaging large
parts of the city.
Its management, backed up by Georgian ministers, though said that
the chemicals had been safe when it was loaded on to The Rhosus, a cargo
ship, in its Black Sea port of Batumi and that the fault for the explosion
lies with the authorities in Beirut.
“Rustavi Azot is one of the country’s largest exporter companies
and produces up to 1% of the world’s total ammonium nitrate
consumption,” it said. “The company produces, stores and exports its
products having required licenses and permissions and in compliance with
all applicable national and international standards.”
The Soviet-era plant near Tbilisi employs 2,000 people and is the only
ammonium nitrate producer in the South Caucasus. Over the past half a
decade, the Georgian government has promoted Rustavi Azot and talked up
its exports and in 2016, the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development led an international consortium of banks with a $155m
loan designed to help modernise the plant.
There had even been talk at the time of the EBRD taking a stake in
Rustavi Azot, although this does not appear to have materialised.
In its statement, Rustavi Azot was also careful to point out that new
management has been running the plant for the past three years and
shouldn’t be held responsible for previous deals.
But questions will still be asked as to how more than half the plant’s
annual production of ammonium nitrate in 2013 could be loaded onto
the Rhosus, which was sailing under the flag of landlocked Moldova and
was owned by Russian Igor Grechushkin.
Ammonium nitrate is mainly used as a fertiliser but can also be used to
produce cheap explosives and the Rhosus had been bound for an arms
factory in Mozambique when it was diverted to Beirut and its cargo impounded.
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— This story was first published in issue 456 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on Aug. 9 2020
JAN. 10 2020 (The Bulletin) — EuroChem, the Russia-controlled and Switzerland-based chemical producer, signed a deal to build a $1b fertiliser plant in the Zhambyl region that it hopes will manufacture 1m tonnes of fertilisers every year, the Kazakh government reported through its official Astana Times newspaper. Kazakh officials said that the plant will create 2,000 jobs and will start operations in 2021. EuroChem already has mining operations in the Zhambyl region.
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— This story was first published in issue 433 of the weekly Bulletin on Jan. 13 2020
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NOV. 5 2018 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s Pres. Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his government to sue Belgorkhimprom, the Belarusian company that built the Garlyk potash plant. The plant was supposed to be the biggest in Central Asia with a capacity of 720,000 tonnes/year. Since it opened, though, in March 2017, it has produced a fraction of this. No official reason on why the plant’s output has been so low has been given. Belgorkhimprom has said that it hasn’t been paid for the construction of the plant.
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— This story was first published in issue 391 of the Conway Bulletin on Nov. 11 2018.
AUG. 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — An explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant in Nairit, Armenia, ignited a fire that raged for at least two days. The chemicals plant has been on the verge of bankruptcy for several years, with management sacking two-thirds of the staff en mass in 2015. The plant is currently owned by Samvel Karapetyan, one of Armenia’s richest men, through his company Electric Networks of Armenia. It is unclear if anybody was hurt in the explosion and what caused it.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)
APRIL 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan opened a tender process to build a second potash plant, only a couple of weeks after opening the country’s first one. The move appears to be part of a drive aimed at reducing the country’s reliance on gas exports. The price of gas has collapsed since 2014, hitting Turkmenistan’s economy hard. Belarus designed and built the first potash plant but, despite pledges of loyalty and partnership, the contract to build the second plant appears to have been thrown open to all potential suitors.
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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)
MARCH 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov officially opened a $1b Belarussian-built potash plant which he hopes will help transform the country’s economy away from near total dependence on gas exports.
Commissioned in 2010 and delayed by a couple of years, the Garlyk potash plant has been held up as a shining example of a strong Belarus-Turkmenistan partnership. The plant was built by Belarussia’s Belgorkhimprom.
For Belarussia, and Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko was also at the officially opening of the plant, construction of the factory was a chance to show off its expertise and know-how. For Turkmenistan, it signalled a great push by Mr Berdymukhamedov to try to capture a slice of the lucrative fertiliser market in China and India.
At a series of meetings before and after the opening of the potash plant, Mr Berdymukhamedov and Mr Lukashenko reaffirmed trade and partnership commitments towards one another.
Mr Lukashenko also said that there had been talk of Belarus helping Turkmenistan develop its textile industries. Belarus is heavily industrialised but also retains a significant agricultural base, including one of the world’s biggest fertiliser producers.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
MARCH 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan will finally start operations at the Garlyk Mining and Processing plant in its north-eastern Lebap province, Turkmen media reported by quoting senior officials at Belgorkhimprom, the Belarusian constructor who has been building the site since 2009. Garlyk is a major potassium salt field and the plant is designed to produce fertilisers. Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has said that he wants to diversify the country’s economy away from gas exports.
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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)
JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korea’s state Export-Import bank EximBank has given Azerbaijan’s Socar a $500m loan to build a carbamide plant in Sumgait near Baku. Carbamide, also known as urea, is a chemical used either as a fertiliser or in the plastics industry. South Korea will view the loan as a way of extending relations between the two countries. The EximBank loan covers around two- third of the cost of the plant which will come online in 2018. South Korea’s Samsung Engineering is the main contractor.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)f
JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korea’s state Export-Import bank EximBank has given Azerbaijan’s Socar a $500m loan to build a carbamide plant in Sumgait near Baku. Carbamide, also known as urea, is a chemical used either as a fertiliser or in the plastics industry. South Korea will view the loan as a way of extending relations between the two countries. The EximBank loan covers around two- third of the cost of the plant which will come online in 2018. South Korea’s Samsung Engineering is the main contractor.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)f