ASHGABAT (Reuters) -South Korea’s Daewoo Engineering & Construction has begun work on a large mineral fertilizer plant in Turkmenistan, a project costing around $780 million, a government official close to the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday.
Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdymukhamedov attended a groundbreaking ceremony at the plant, local television reported.
Daewoo E&C was not immediately available for comment.
Rich in gas reserves but traditionally isolated politically, Turkmenistan has been striving to diversify to produce higher-value-added goods. It primarily exports natural gas to China.
The fertilizer plant is planned to be built within three years in Turkmenabat, Turkmenistan’s second-largest city, 450 kilometres east of the capital, Ashgabat.
Its capacity will be 350,000 metric tons of phosphate fertilizers and 100,000 tons of ammonium sulfate per year.
(Reporting by Marat Gurt, Writing by Felix Light, Editing by Alexander Smith)
