Production at Shahjalal Fertiliser Company suspended for 2 months, causing Tk 5 million in losses daily

The production of urea fertiliser at the state-owned Shahjalal Fertiliser Company Ltd (SFCL) in Sylhet has remained suspended for around last two months due to a mechanical glitch, causing daily loss of Tk 5 million (50 lakh).

The production has been suspended since 8 January when the gas turbine software went out of order, said an official at the industry’s engineering department on condition of anonymity, reports UNB.

“The factory’s engineers tried to fix it several times but failed,” he said adding that it took around two months to collect machinery from abroad to fix it.

However, the equipment finally arrived in the country on Thursday.

The factory having a production capacity of 1,760 tonnes, used to produce 1,500 tonnes of urea fertiliser along with ammonia as a by-product every day before its closure.

Mohammad Ziabul Hossain, managing director at the SFCL, told UNB that they would be able to resume production within five to six days as machinery have arrived from abroad and the maintenance is going on. 

The authorities concerned informed that the fertiliser factory has not been failing to meet its target of production due to repeated closures on different grounds since it went for production in 2016.

The SFCL was established at a cost of Tk 55 billion (5,500 crore) in 2012 alongside the dilapidated Natural Gas Fertilizer Factory Ltd (NGFL) in Sylhet.