Jamuna Fertilizer Factory stops production again within 2 days

Fertilizer production at the Jamuna Fertilizer Factory in Sarishabari, Jamalpur, has come to a halt once again due to a boiler fault, just two days after operations resumed.

Production ceased on Wednesday afternoon (October 7) following a technical glitch in the factory's boiler unit, confirmed Md Fazlul Huq, Head of the Production Department at Jamuna Fertilizer Factory.

Fazlul Huq explained that after a prolonged shutdown caused by a severe gas crisis, the factory received gas supplies and restarted production on Monday night at 3:10 AM. However, the boiler developed a fault on Wednesday afternoon, bringing operations to a standstill.

He noted that the long operational layoff led to the boiler malfunction, though other machinery across the plant remains fully operational. Technical teams expect to fix the boiler issue within a day to resume production. Despite the brief operational window, the plant produced 1,600 metric tons of fertilizer over the past two days.

The Jamuna Fertilizer Factory was previously shuttered for 23 months—from January 2024 to November 2025—due to gas shortages and mechanical issues. After brief operations, gas shortages forced another shutdown on February 12 this year, before gas connections were restored on September 20.

Although the plant was originally designed with a daily production capacity of 1,700 metric tons, low gas pressure and aging equipment have reduced its current daily output capacity to between 1,200 and 1,400 metric tons.

Under the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), the factory supplies fertilizer to 21 northern districts, including Jamalpur, Sherpur, Mymensingh, and Tangail, through 1,900 registered dealers. When operating normally with adequate gas flow, the plant produces around Tk 200 crore worth of fertilizer monthly, generating roughly Tk 60 crore in net profit.

Conversely, maintaining plant readiness during shutdowns costs approximately Tk 6 crore per month in gas bills alone, excluding other operational overheads.

-SA