Azernews.Az

Friday March 29 2024

Uzbek president gives instructions for development of chemical industry

17 October 2018 11:08 (UTC+04:00)
Uzbek president gives instructions for development of chemical industry

By Trend

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has held a meeting on the accelerated development of the chemical industry, attraction of foreign investment and modern technologies to the industry.

Uzbekistan’s subsoil contains almost all elements of the periodic table. However, despite the rich reserves of hydrocarbons, the domestic chemical industry specializes mainly in the production of mineral fertilizers for agriculture.

The production of complex polymers, catalysts, reagents and synthetic fibers necessary for the construction materials, pharmaceutical, textile, engineering and other industries has not been established.

As a result, chemical products worth $1.5 billion are imported annually. Phosphorus and potash fertilizers produced in the country cover only a third of the demand for them.

Capacities for the production of complex mineral fertilizers are outdated by 60-70 percent, which leads to waste of energy resources, an increase in the cost of chemical products.

Since last year, 17 investment projects worth $ 3.1 billion have been launched in order to meet the need for mineral fertilizers. In addition, 17 more projects worth $4.2 billion will be implemented in order to diversify the chemical industry until 2025.

The upcoming measures to eliminate shortcomings in the industry and to further develop the chemical industry have been discussed at the meeting. As noted, the development of the industry requires the commissioning of new modern production facilities.

Today, the need for nitrogen fertilizers in Uzbekistan is met by 73 percent, in phosphate fertilizers - by 20 percent. The average wear level of nitrogen fertilizer production facilities is 64 percent, while the average wear level of phosphate fertilizer production facilities is 77 percent.

In order to improve the situation in this sphere, it is planned to implement 9 projects worth $2.8 billion in the next five years, as a result of which the production of mineral fertilizers and sulphate acid will double. The demand for nitrogen and potash fertilizers will be fully met, the level of satisfaction of demand for phosphate fertilizers will increase several times.

However, currently, only 14 percent of natural gas is deeply processed, in particular 5 percent of gas is processed in the chemical industry. The production of chemical products from silicon, kaolin and gypsum remains unaddressed.

According to the available data, there is a demand abroad for non-fertilizer products manufactured in Uzbekistan, mainly polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene in the amount of over $ 100 billion.

In this regard, in order to diversify the varieties of products of the chemical industry, it is planned to implement 15 projects for the production of organic substances and 8 projects for the production of inorganic substances.

At the meeting, the responsible persons have been charged with the development of a "roadmap" for the implementation of the set tasks with further continuous monitoring of its implementation.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more