Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dec. 26
By Demir Azizov - Trend:
Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov signed a decree on arranging the construction of a mechanical rubber goods plant in the city of Angren in the country's Tashkent region.
The sources for financing of the construction are defined in accordance with the decree.
Under the decree, the project will be financed with a $27.6 million loan from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan (FRDU), $156.36 million foreign loans refinanced by the State Joint-Stock Commercial Bank Asaka, and through the funds of the founders of the construction operator - the Directorate for Construction of the Mechanical Rubber Goods Plant of the State Joint-Stock Company Uzhimprom.
The authorized capital of the Directorate for Construction of the Mechanical Rubber Goods Plant will increase up to $30 million, according to the decree.
Its founders list will include Uzhimprom (with 50 percent share), Uzavtoprom (30 percent), and the Navoi and Almalyk mining and metallurgical complex's (10 percent each).
In November 2014, Uzhimprom concluded a contract with China's Poly Technologies Inc. to build a tire plant in Uzbekistan. The decree said that the contract is worth $183.96 million.
The design capacity of the plant with a total cost of $214 million will stand at three million pieces of tires, 200,000 pieces of agricultural equipment tires and 100,000 linear meters of conveyor belts.
The decree said Uzavtoprom and the US-based corporation, General Motors, agreed on kitting up cars, produced at the GM Uzbekistan, with tires locally made "in case of successful certification and laboratory testing of the mentioned products in line with international standards and requirements of GM Uzbekistan".
In September 2011, the Uzhimprom signed a contract with China's Citic Pacific Ltd. (Citic) to build a $155 million worth mechanical rubber goods plant in Uzbekistan.
The plant was planned to be based on Rezinotekhnika OJSC. Subsequently, the Uzbek side waived the contract due to the changes in the terms of the project and its technical parameters.
Uzbekistan doesn't manufacture tires, and fully imports them particularly from Russia and China.
The Rezinotekhnika OJSC, before the collapse of the USSR, was the largest producer of rubber products in Uzbekistan.
Its design capacity was 120,000 tires for cars and trailers, nine million pairs of special rubber shoes, 600,000 square meters of rubberized fabric and 1,000 metric tons of commercial rubber per year.
Due to a sharp decline in the supply of raw materials, purchased from Russia, the capacities of the enterprises have in recent years been running at less than 10 percent.