Fertiliser industry grows up

>> DAP cultivates winning image

Construction of the country's second diammonium phosphate (DAP) plant kicked off last week. The 73-hectare plant is located at Tang Loong Industrial Park in the mountainous northern province of Lao Cai.

Capitalised at $250 million, the new facility will have an annual production capacity of 330,000 tonnes and is expected to come online in the third quarter of 2014.

State-owned Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem) holds a 51 per cent stake in the Lao Cai DAP facility with other shareholders including Nam Viet Joint Stock Company (29 per cent), Technology Development Co., Ltd (10 per cent), and Vietnam Apatite Limited Company (6 per cent).

"The construction of this plant will not only basically meet the need for DAP fertiliser in the domestic market, but will also help effectively use the raw materials available in Vietnam" said Lao Cai DAP chairman of management board Ngo Manh Hoai.

He added that together with the country's first DAP facility in Haiphong port city's Dinh Vu Industrial Park, Vietnam's DAP domestic supply would be doubled to 660,000 tonnes per year, meeting 80 per cent of domestic demand.

"Once the Lao Cai DAP facility starts operating, it will contribute VND400 billion ($19.04 million) per year to the state budget," said Lao Cai DAP facility general director Nguyen Quang Loi.

Contractors of the Lao Cai DAP facility are Toyo-Thai Corporation Public Company Limited, Mitsui Engineering Shipbuilding company Limited, Toyo-Vietnam Co., Ltd, Chemical Industry Engineering Corporation Vietnam and Vietnam Industrial Construction Corporation.

"If, after 28 months since the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contract comes into force, the contractors could not complete their work as scheduled, they will be fined like Chinese contractor in Dinh Vu DAP. A one-day delay will be fined over VND1 billion ($47,619) in accordance with the contract," Loi added.

In August, 2011, the Chinese EPC contractor was fined $6 million for delaying the construction of the Dinh Vu DAP facility.