The plant supplies soda ach to machinery and chemical industries’ enterprises of Uzbekistan and neighbouring countries - Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, the report added.

The Bryansk Chemical Company (Russia) received 9,000 tonnes of soda ash and Maylisuu electric lamp plant in Kyrgyzstan 1,000 tonnes. Among the buyers of the produce are also Power Global Engineering in Kazakhstan and Letreh-invest in Turkmenistan.

“Every day, we produce 240-250 tonnes of high-quality product,” said the head of the company Obod Rambergenov. “This year the company is planning to produce 85,000 tonnes of soda ash.”

Kungrad Soda Plant was commissioned in August 2006. The Kungrad Soda Plant cost the founders US$100 million. The designed capacity of the plant is 100,000 tonnes of soda ash a year.

In accordance with the contract signed with UzKimyoSanoat, Citic Pacific Ltd did the designing and turn-key construction of the technological part of the plant worth US$32.3 million. The technological part of the project was funded by a loan of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (90% of the contract cost) with the insurance provided by the Chinese Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, and a loan of the UzPromStroyBank (Uzbek Industrial Construction Bank, 10% of the contract cost) guaranteed by the Uzbek government.

General construction works were performed by local construction companies at the expense of UzKimyoSanoat’s own funds.

The production of Kungrad Soda Plant is capable of covering both the domestic demand for the soda ash, and the export of soda ash, hydrate of sodium, and table salt.

Uzbekistan’s domestic demand for soda ash is estimated at 60,000-70,000 tonnes yearly. The main consumers are companies of the household chemical industry and the producers of construction materials, including the producers of different types of glass.

The resource base for Kungrad Soda Plant is Barsakelmes deposit of table salt (explored reserves estimated at 131 million tonnes of table salt containing 97% of NaCl) and Jamansay deposit of limestone (explored reserves estimated at 70 million tonnes) located in Karakalpakstan Republic.