China starts rubber plant in Uzbekistan
Tashkent, Uzbekistan: China has started construction of rubber plant in Uzbekistan as a part of Silk Road Economic Belt project.
According to details, Poly Technologies Inc. of China held the groundbreaking ceremony for a rubber plant that the firm has been contracted to build in an Uzbek industrial zone.
Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Ibragimov Gulomjon Inomovich and Chinese ambassador to Uzbekistan Sun Lijie were present at the ceremony along China Poly Group General Manager and Poly Technologies Chairman Zhang Zhengao.
The Uzbek deputy Prime Minister said in his speech that he was looking forward with anticipation to the opening of the rubber plant and mentioned with praise that the construction of the project is expected to greatly improve the production capacity of Uzbekistan’s rubber products. Ambassador Sun Lijie noted that the Chinese embassy in Uzbekistan is considering China’s Silk Road Economic Belt initiative as an opportunity to continue the support of Chinese firms who wish to invest and start an undertaking in Uzbekistan, much as the embassy has always done. Finally, the Poly Technologies Chairman took the podium to emphasize that the manufacturer will ensure that the rubber plants it builds in Uzbekistan meet all the standards and requirement in terms of quality of product and production goals, and that a rigorous and practical work ethic will be applied to make sure that construction is completed on schedule. The project is based on turnkey production facility
In order to replace imported
tires with homegrown product and expand exports to peripheral countries, the Uzbekistan government decided to build tire manufacturing plants locally and, since 2008, started the process of selecting partners for construction and operation of the plants. After nearly six years of negotiation and bidding, Poly Technologies was selected as a cooperation partner by the Uzbek government. During the visit of the Uzbek president to China in August of 2014, Poly Technologies signed a nearly US$184 million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement with Uzbekistan National Chemical and confirmed a turnkey construction project to produce 3 million semi steel radial automotive tires, 200,000 bias agricultural tires and 100,000 linear meters of conveyor belt annually in the first phase of the project.
The Uzbekistan rubber plant project is regarded by Uzbek President and government as a national strategic development project and the construction of the facility is being treated as a high priority project under highly favorable terms. Completion of the production facility is expected to greatly improve Uzbekistan’s self-sufficiency in providing tires to its automotive factories and after-sale service markets while furthering the advancement of industrial cooperation between China and Uzbekistan, a level of cooperation which will be of great significance to developing Uzbekistan’s economy and drive local social development.
Sino-Uzbek cooperation becomes the focus of attentions part of China’s efforts to implement the One Belt, One Road initiative
