The production of urea fertilizer at the state-owned Shahjalal Fertilizer Company Ltd (SFCL) in Sylhet has remained suspended for around the last two months due to a mechanical glitch, causing a daily loss of Tk50 lakh.
The production has been suspended since January 8, when the software of the gas turbine went out of order, said an official at the industry's engineering department on condition of anonymity.
“The factory's engineers tried to fix it several times but failed,” he said adding that it took around two months to collect machinery from abroad to fix it.
However, the equipment finally arrived in the country on Thursday.
The factory with a capacity of producing 1,760 tons used to produce 1,500 tons of urea fertilizer along with ammonia as a by-product every day before its closure.
Mohammad Ziabul Hossain, managing director at SFCL, said they would be able to resume production within five to six days as maintenance work is going on upon the arrival of machinery from abroad.
The authorities concerned said the fertilizer factory has been failing to meet its target of production due to repeated closures on different grounds since it went for production in 2016.
SFCL was established at a cost of Tk5,500 crore in 2012 alongside Natural Gas Fertilizer Factory Ltd (NGFL) in Sylhet.
