On 5 November 2018, at a video conference President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov expressed extreme discontent with the performance of the state holding “Turkmenkhimia” and, in particular, Garlyk mining and refining facility.
The head of the state said that over a year has passed after the commissioning of the potassium fertilizers facility, but the plant is not operating at the projected capacity and the executives do not come up with proposals to remedy the situation.
The President charged Deputy Prime Minister responsible for industry Kerim Durdumyradov with the task of reviewing the shortcomings and preparing documents to file a petition to the International Court of Arbitration.
According to the Turkmen news outlet Orient, in the period of January-September 2018 alone some 24,2 tons of potassium fertilizers have been produced despite the fact that the estimated capacity of the facility is 1,4 million tons.
In other words, the facility’s output is just 2,3% (32,3 thousand tons) of the projected volume of fertilizers.
Let us recall that Garlyk mining and refining facility worth $1,1 billion which was built by Belarus construction company “Belgorkhimprom” was commissioned on 31 March 2017.
In July 2018 it became known that the Turkmen side owed the Belarus contractor $42,7 mln.
The Belarus website “charter97” reported that “there are doubtful prospects of recovering the debt from the official Ashgabat since Turkmenistan is undergoing a severe economic crisis”.
It should be mentioned that a month after the opening of Garlyk mining and refining facility President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that he had been invited to build the second potassium plant.
Later, however, it was announced that “Belgorkhimprom” refused to take part in the tender.
In April 2018 Turkmenistan’s Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and local companies were authorized to build the second potassium fertilizers plant.
A soft loan worth $3 billion was provided to the Union to build the ore mining facility and the motorway Ashgabat-Turkmenabat.
In October 2018 the head of the state demanded that the construction of the second potassium plant be expedited.