DUSHANBE, May 15, 2009, Asia-Plus  --  Over the first three months of this year, the state unitary enterprise, Tojikcement (Dushanbe cement plant), has produced cement 12,300 tons fewer than in the same period of last year, according to the report released by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on April 15.

Compared to January-March 2008 production of Dutch bricks over the report period has been reduced by 37.5 percent and the cement production has dropped 25.7 percent.  The main reason for the decrease in the production volumes is improper use of the plant’s capacities due to severe natural-gas shortages, the report said.

Over the report period, the plant was supposed to produce 70,000 tons of cement and Tojikcement needed 16.5 million cubic meters of natural gas for that; however, it has received only 9.2 million cubic meters of gas from Tojiktransgaz (Tajik state natural-gas distributor) over the report period.

The report notes that Tojikcement’s debt to Tojiktransgaz has decreased by 2.4 million somoni over the first quarter of this year and as of April 1, 2009 the plant owed to Tojiktransgaz 1.6 million somoni.