The Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited (KAFCO) is the largest and the most significant joint venture multinational project ever undertaken in Bangladesh. Although there are six other state-owned ammonia/urea fertilizer units in Bangladesh, they are all serving the domestic market needs. KAFCO was conceived as a dedicated 100 per cent export-oriented complex, the first of its kind in Bangladesh and the region.

The representatives of the shareholders in the company are: Stamicarbon b.v., Holland; Industrialisation Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), Denmark; Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), UK; Chiyoda Corporation, Japan; Marubeni Corporation, Japan; The Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund, Japan (now JBIC); Haldor Topsøe A/S, Denmark; and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) on behalf of the Government of Bangladesh.

KAFCO’s fully integrated complex, on 55 acres of land, is located in Rangadia, Chittagong just alongside the Karnaphuli River. The Company employs a total of over 600 people at plant site and at its corporate headquarters in Dhaka. Most of those employed at plant site live in the Company’s housing colony built 2 km down from the plant on 16 acres of developed land. The housing colony incorporates a school, medical clinic and recreational facilities for the benefit of the Company’s employees.

Each year KAFCO exports about 0.13 million MT of liquid Anhydrous Ammonia and a 0.65 million MT of high-grade granular urea to countries worldwide across America, the Middle East and Australasia. With an annual turnover of US$ 80 million the Company’s true significance lies in its flagship status for the future industrial and economic development of Bangladesh.

KAFCO has, since 1996, proven its further worth to the country by diverting a large volume of its urea to supplying the Government of Bangladesh so that the government may meet the country’s shortfall demand for granular urea. This arrangement has saved the GoB a large amount from the exchequer in freight and warehousing costs each year.

At plant site the Company effectively operates an ammonia plant and a urea plant; running on a feedstock of natural gas, the plant consumes a total of 59 million cubic feet of ultra pure hydrocarbon (methane) per day. The urea plant was originally designed by Stamicarbon bv of the Netherlands to produce 1725 MT of high-grade granular urea per day, however, the plant has overshot nameplate capacity by a wide margin and is currently recording production rates in the 2000s! This 2000 plus MT rate puts production at over 116 per cent of nameplate capacity. What is even more noteworthy and speaks volumes for the Company’s engineers and technical crew is the fact that this elevated production rate has been achieved without any corresponding increase in gas consumption.

The plant has its own 20,000 MT ammonia storage facility and is fully equipped for the export of anhydrous ammonia (500 MT per hour) from its own jetty, which can handle refrigerated ammonia carriers of up to 20,000 DWT. In addition the urea plant is equipped with an 80,000 MT bulk storage facility as a well as a bagging plant and incorporates bagged as well as bulk product handling facilities within KAFCO’s own urea loading jetty, capable of handling 25,000 DWT vessels.

KAFCO is the flagship project for future industrial and economic development in the country. Its success is destined to invite more foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Bangladesh economy.

Main Contact People at KAFCO:

Mr. Richard William Arnold
Managing Director
Phone: (880 2) 811 1801 – Direct, (880 2) 812 4988, 812 5377, 812 5520
Fax: (880 2) 811 1801, (880 2) 812 4490
Email: rwa@kafco.net