Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

Azerbaijan's Carbamide Plant is going not only to improve productivity in the agriculture sector of the country, but also to become one of the main suppliers of fertilizers worldwide.

Azerbaijan exported 33,970 tons of carbamide worth $5.4 million in the first half of 2019. All exports accounted for the second quarter of this year.

The main export volume of carbamide accounted for Turkey – 16,786 tons for $2.7 million, and Russia – 8,752 tons for $1.4 million.

The rest of the products were delivered to Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania.

SOCAR Carbamide Plant began exporting carbamide in June this year. The products are shipped through the Volga-Don Canal and the Black Sea, as well as by road transportation to the ports of Georgia and Turkey. In the future, exports can be carried out by Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.

Presently, SOCAR Carbamide Plant is the biggest project in the country implemented in the non-oil sector. The South Korean company Samsung Engineering provided engineering, procurement, construction and pre-commissioning services for the plant.

SOCAR Carbamide Plant, built in the territory of the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park, was commissioned on January 16.

The total cost of the plant is 780 million euros. Some 197 million euros was allocated from the state budget, Kexim Bank allocated 251 million euros, Societe Generale (France), Deutsche Bank (Germany) and UniCredit (Austria) allocated 249 million euros, while SOCAR allocated 80-85 million euros.

Agroleasing OJSC is expected to be the main buyer of carbamide in the domestic market. As of July 2019, Agroleasing signed a contract with the SOCAR for the purchase of urea fertilizers worth 10.5 million manats. The volume of the first batch delivered by Agroleasing amounted to 25,000 tons.

Azerbaijan’s domestic demand for carbamide is from 100,000 to 150,000 tons per year. Taking into account that the plant’s capacity is approximately 660,000 of carbamide, up to 500,000 tons per year of finished products will be exported.

The demand for carbamide is connected with its low cost, economical transportation, and convenient use, which contributes to high yields in agriculture. This product is also widely used in the production of other chemicals and pharmaceutics.

The production at the SOCAR Carbamide Plant will eliminate the need for import of carbamide. Moreover, 70 percent of the production is envisaged for export, which will enable Azerbaijan to receive additional income of up to $160 million annually.

Carbamide fertilizers have the highest nitrogen content; therefore, they are considered the highest quality nitrogen fertilizer.

---

Leman Mammadova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz