KHUJAND, April 6, 2011, Asia-Plus – After being closed for eight months, the Khujand-based empties production plant was reopened on April 1.
The plant director general Mirzohalim Mirzokarimov told Asia-Plus Wednesday afternoon that the enterprise was shifted from natural gas to fuel oil.
According to him, the enterprise had not been in operation since August 2010 because of global financial and economic crisis.
“In 2009, the plant produced empties for 16.6 million somoni, while last year, we produced empties for only 3.5 million somoni. Production distribution has fallen five times,” said the director. “Currently, the plant produces 45,000 two-liter glass jars per day and we plan to increase production to 60,000 glass jars within the next 10-15 days.”
“We now use fuel oil for melting furnaces, while natural gas is now used only for auxiliary production processes,” he said, noting that the produced empties will be sent to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Besides, four domestic packers will also buy the glass jars.
Located in Khujand, the enterprise was founded in 1949. In 1997, the plant was reorganized into cooperative enterprise Lal and in 1999, it was reorganized into joint-stock company (JSC) Lal. The enterprise has the rated capacity of producing 90,000 empties per day. 350 people now work with the plant.
