Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd (CUFL). Photo: BSS

CHATTOGRAM, Jan 26, 2025 (BSS) - Production has been resumed at Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd (CUFL) at the early hours on Saturday after 23 days.

The productions at CUFL have remained suspended for the last 23 days following mechanical faults.  

Mizanur Rahman, Managing Director of CUFL said production of the factory was postponed on January 3 last following a mechanical glitch. 

CUFL, one of the country’s biggest state-owned fertilizers producing industry at the South-East bank of Karnaphuli river in Anowara upazila in the district has been facing frequent trouble for years resulting a rapid production fall due to repeated mechanical faults as well as inadequate gas supply. 

CUFL sources said the production remained open for only 5 days in the 2023-2024 fiscal while production came into a halt from February 7 last year and production again resumed on October 13 last after 10 months of suspension. 

The daily urea production of the factory has been reduced to 1,200 metric tonnes from 1700 MT capacity. Its annual declared production capacity is around 5.61 lakhs MT. CUFL had only produced 2.5 lakhs MT urea during last FY. 

Country needs to import 16 lakhs MTs of urea annually against the total demand of 26 Lakhs MTs as Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) owns all factories including CUFL can produce only around 10 lakhs MTs of urea. 

CUFL sources said gas supply shortage coupled with persisting mechanical faults were two major causes behind significant declining of production in this industrial KPI.