Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. I.Khalilova / The Azerbaijani-Russian joint enterprise AzRosPromInvest (AzRPI) is expanding the delivery market of bentonitic clay from the Dash Salahli field located in the region of Gazakh in Azerbaijan, Natig Shirinzadeh, the chairman of the Council of Directors of the enterprise, said.
Currently, the enterprise delivers its production to the Minsk tractor plant, as Belarus demands Azerbaijani production the most.
Azerbaijani production may lay its niche in the Euro Asian market in 2008 and deliver its production from 2010. The enterprise will deliver bentonitic powder to Russian, Belarus, Ukrainian, Kazakhstan and the Middle East markets.
Taking into consideration the demand in bentonitic powder in the world market, the benthonic clay is currently delivered to the Ilsk plant in the province of Krasnodar, to produce powder.
Tariffs for transport from the Gazakh region to Yalama by rail make up $16 per one ton. According to Shirinzadeh, Russian tariffs are more flexible as from Yalama to Petrozavodsk tariffs make up $22. AzRosPromInvest intends to propose to the Government to decrease tariffs on transport of the production by rail.
The reserves of the Dash Salahli field constitute 83mln tons.