Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug.17 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
The Azerbaijani company Azersun Holding plans to put into operation a new plant for production of iodized salt and refined food in the Masazyr village near Baku by late 2009 - early 2010, the holding said.
Despite the ongoing global financial and economic crisis, the company does not stop its projects and plans to put into operation a factory for the salt production in December or January of 2009, the holding said.
Earlier, the plant was scheduled to commission in the third quarter of 2009.
The volume of investments in the project remains unchanged, constituting $12 million. Even if changes are injected, they will be minimal," the same source said.
The plant will be built in an area of 7 hectares, given to the Azerbaijani Salt production union established by Azersun Holding and Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC). The AIC will invest $2.9 million in the project and hold 25 percent participation share in the authorized capital of Azerbaijani Salt.
The Swiss company Evoterm has supplied necessary equipment for the construction of the plant in the country. The Turkish company Inova will carry out the construction.
The plant and infrastructure (pumps, etc.) to collect salt from the lake will be built near the Masazyr Lake. Initially, the salt will be collected from sites in the Masazyr Lake, but in future it is planned to import it from Turkmenistan in the future.
The company may launch supplies from Turkmenistan in year, after the construction of the plant. For the time being it will focus on the local salt, AIC said earlier.
Due to big demand for iodized salt it is also planned to double the production to 200 tons per day. Previously, it was planned to manufacture 100 tons of iodized food salt per day with an annual output of 30,000.
The company, along with high-quality food salt, also plans to organize the production of medical salts.
The results of the project on problem of iodine deficiency and the iodization of universal salt, implemented with the donor support from UNICEF, revealed the relevance of the iodine deficiency problem.
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