Tajikistan: Tojikcement, Tajikistan's largest cement plant, has been accused of failing to replay US$2.5m to the Export Guarantee and Insurance Corporation (EGAP), a Czech state-owned credit insurance company. However, the Tajikistan Ministry of Energy and Industries has announced that a Chinese firm has started preparations for a major upgrade costing US$7.73m.
Hana Hikelova, chair of the EGAP PR department, made the accusation and has been quoted by Asia Plus news agency. According to Hikelova, EGAP in insured a loan provided by the Czech Export Bank to Tojikcement for modernisation of the Dushanbe cement plant in 2006. According to a statement released by the Czech Embassy in Tashkent in February 2013, "The main problem of further development of Czech exports is the unsettled debt of Tojikcement."
Meanwhile, on 10 May 2013 the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI) Secretariat announced that Beijing Uni-Construction Group had started preparations works at Tojikcement, to install a coal-fired rotary kiln. Eleven Chinese specialists are reportedly working in the plant in Dushanbe. The coal-firing kiln is expected to be delivered to Dushanbe in mid-June 2013 and the installation work is expected to be completed by mid-September 2013, an official source at a MoEI said. The total cost of the upgrade is US$7.73m, with US$150,000 provided by Tojikcement and the remainder by Beijing Uni-Construction Group.
Tojikcement, which has a cement production capacity of 1.1Mt/yr, is the largest cement producer in Tajikistan. The plant has not been operational since the beginning of 2013 due to a lack of natural gas supplies. Currently there are five cement plants operational in Tajikistan with a combined cement capacity of 1.3Mt/yr. In 2012, Tajikistan produced 235,000t, including 203,000t produced by Tojikcement.
