08.04.2024

On April 8, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrived in Jizzakh region. The first destination on his program was the “Basalt Uzbekistan” cluster in Farish district.

Farish is the largest district of the region. However, the efficiency of land use was rather low. Mostly cattle were raised on hills and pastures, and there were no industrial enterprises.

Seven years ago, industry came to Farish - the extraction of basalt stone from the Olmossoy deposit and the production of basalt fiber began. On the basis of unique, innovative technologies, the production of rebar and meshes, which are important for the construction industry, was launched.

In January 2019, the President visited the enterprise and gave instructions to expand its activities and product range.

Accordingly, the market demand was analyzed, raw material deposits were studied. The latest technologies from Germany, France, Italy and the Czech Republic were introduced. As a result, six projects worth US$498 million were implemented on an area of 300 hectares, forming a cluster.

The President inspected samples of raw materials and the finished products.

The cluster processes 177 thousand tons of basalt stone per year and produces 42 types of products, including special fibers, roving, fibers, rebar, composite geogrids, pipes, fabrics and thermal insulation panels. In particular, 45 thousand tons of products worth 554 billion Uzbek soums were produced last year. 80% of the goods, which are in high demand in the world, were exported to the United States, Great Britain, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Russia, Turkiye, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.

The cluster employs 1,7 thousand people.

According to experts, basalt building materials do not rust. They are light, but very strong, resistant to the alkaline environment of concrete mixtures, salt and acid solutions. Using basalt materials for walls increases their strength and provides good thermal insulation. Another important advantage is that they are not flammable. With all these advantages, the products are relatively inexpensive.

The possibilities of using the materials in public utilities, automotive, textile, oil and gas and other industries were presented.

The President emphasized the need to explain the advantages of basalt materials to entrepreneurs and to develop cooperation with them. Instructions were given on obtaining quality certificates in new countries, more active promotion in the foreign market, and establishing cooperation with international construction and industrial companies.

Next year, one of the cluster's enterprises, "Basfiber Trade", plans to create the capacity to produce 25 thousand tons of basalt fibers and fabrics per year. So far, equipment worth US$145 million has been imported. The new project will make it possible to export 90% of the production, in addition to meeting domestic needs.

The task of placing new projects worth US$500 million on the territory of the cluster for the production of 20 types of products with high added value has been given to the responsible officials. As a result, an additional 2 thousand jobs will be created.