Azernews.Az

By Fatma Babayeva

The Carbamide Plant of SOCAR which is currently under construction will make profit in seven or eight years after its commissioning, said Plant Director Khayal Jafarov.

The company is expecting high profits and productivity from the plant, Jafarov told journalists on April 12, reminding that its capacity will be about 2,000 tons of carbamide a day or 650,000-660,000 tons per year.

The plant will consist of sectors that produce ammonia, liquid and granular carbamide.

The Carbamide Plant is expected to release its first products during the first quarter of 2018.

Main construction contractor is the Korean Samsung Engineering company. The Korean company has completed more than 66 percent of the works on the construction of the Plant. Some 600 people are currently employed in construction and at its peak this figure will reach 2,500 people.

The demand for carbamide in Azerbaijan is about 150,000-200,000 tons per year which can be considered as the most optimistic figure.

“The remaining part, about two thirds of our total production, will be exported,” Jafarov said, noting that the main market for the Carbamide Plant will be Turkey.

Currently, Turkey imports 1.5-1.8 million tons of carbamide per year mostly from Ukraine, Russia and the Middle East. The realization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project will also contribute to realize exports to the Turkish market.

Jafarov stressed that a number of factors needs to be considered in this regard. Middle East countries like Qatar and Egypt export carbamide to the eastern markets- China and India. Meanwhile, natural gas is an important factor for Ukraine to produce carbamide.

The official further added that about 320-330 million euros has been spent in the framework of the plant construction. This amount has been spent only to the current works performed by Samsung.

Jafarov believes that a large amount of taxes has been paid during the construction of the plant, which is really a great support for the state budget.

Furthermore, representatives of EXIM Bank of Korea will visit Azerbaijan in two weeks in order to discuss the allocation of a long-term loan to SOCAR for the construction of the Carbamide Plant, Jafarov said.

The Plant has already applied to the government for obtaining a state guarantee for the loan. The negotiation process will take from three to four months.

The funds needed for the completion of the plant reaches 498 million euros. The figure covers only the costs for the production site, while the cost of setting up external infrastructure is not included.

The total cost of the project will amount to 910-920 million euros, including 200 million euros of taxes.

The launch of the plant will provide job for 2, 000 people in Azerbaijan.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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