Hiccupping Zia fertiliser plant causes huge loss
Sheikh Md Shahidul Islam, Brahmanbaria
Zia Fertilizer Company Limited (ZFCL) at Ashuganj remained inoperative for 62 days in different phases from July 10 to October 18, resulting in the production loss of at least 93,000 tonnes of urea.During the time, the ZFCL factory faced seven shutdowns including one for 35 days from July 10 to August 13 due to overhauling. The grand overhauling costing Tk 60 crore failed to improve the situation as due to technical and machinery faults the factory remained stopped for 27 more days in phases until October 18. The factory is becoming frequently inactive due to the authorities' failure to repair the cooling tower damaged by a storm in 2004 and dilapidated machinery including leaked tubes of ammonium plants, sources said. On July 10, the authorities stopped the functioning of the factory to start overhauling and the factory staffs and engineers completed the task on August 13, ZFCL sources said. But the ZFCL factory failed to run smoothly and it took another 11 days to repair the machinery. On August 24, the factory resumed its operation and started producing urea. On August 31, the factory again stopped as its boiler tube exploded. After a two-day repair work, the authorities resumed operation. On September 14, the factory again stopped as the compression tube of the ammonium plant blasted. After repairing the engineers resumed it at night the same day. In the next week the factory remained stopped for three days due to the same cause. On October 8 the factory went out of order as a tube of its ammonium plant busted and it took eight days to repair. On October 15 the factory resumed functioning. again on October 16, the factory stopped due to leakages. After repairing, the authority resumed production on the night of October 18. The BCIC authorities had given ZFCL a production target of 4,50,000 tonnes of urea this financial year. But ZFCL has already shown signs of failure to fulfil the target. In 2005-2006, the factory suffered a production loss of 1,25,000 tonnes of urea as it remained inoperative for 73 days due to technical faults while the production target was 4,20,000 tonnes. The factory could not achieve its production target in 2004-2005 too. Costly overhauling and repeated repair works in the factory have now come under question.
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