Uzbekistan, Tashkent, July 15 / Trend, D. Azizov /
Uzbekistan plans to hire Turkish "Dal Teknik Makina" company to build a cement plant in the Surkhandarya region (south of Uzbekistan) worth $ 250 million, a source in the Uzbek government circles told Trend on Monday.
According to the source, the design capacity of the plant can handle an annual production of 1.7 million tons of special cement brands, including oil-well cement for the oil and gas industry.
It was earlier reported that Uzbekistan planned to hire the Oman Investment Fund for construction.
The interlocutor of agency has not commented on the reasons for the failure to implement the project with the Oman Investment Fund.
The source said that at present, the management of the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Complex (AMMC, Almalyk, Tashkent region) on behalf of the government will direct the negotiations on the cement plant construction with Turkish "Dal Teknik Makina Ticaret Ve Sanayi AS.
If the negotiations finish positively, the contract for the construction of the technological part of the plant can be signed with the Turkish company in autumn 2013.
The project will be financed at the expense of AMMC, the Uzbek Fund for Reconstruction and Development and local banks.
It was reported that Turkish "Dal Teknik Makina" is the general contractor of the cement plant construction in Jizzakh region of Uzbekistan worth $114.2 million. Launched by AMMC in late 2012, its design capacity is 350,000 tons of white cement and 760,000 tons of Portland cement per year.
Commissioning of the plant will fully meet the plant's needs of cement and deliver up to 200,000 tons of products to the domestic market and export.
Almalyk MMC is the only copper producer in Uzbekistan and one of the largest producers of nonferrous metals in Central Asia. The share of AMMC accounts for about 90 percent of silver production and 20 percent of gold in the country.
Total production volume hit more than $ 300 million a year. About 60 percent of output is exported, of which 5 percent goes to the CIS countries.
The company produces refined copper, zinc, lead concentrate and other products.
The combine consists of two mining enterprises, two concentrating mills and two metallurgical plants with their own infrastructure.
There are six cement plants with a total installed capacity of about 7 million tons in Uzbekistan. According to the official statistics, cement production increased by 1.3 percent up to 6.78 million tons in Uzbekistan in 2012 compared to 2011.