Birinchi Rubber Plant (First Rubber Plant)

History

2022: TATNEFT bought the First Rubber Plant

On December 2, 2022, TATNEFT and Uzkimyosanoat signed an agreement on the sale of a 100% tire plant. The Russian oil company bought from Uzbekistan "Birinchi Rubber Plant" (First Rubber Plant) and received 100% control over the enterprise. The cost of the agreement has not been announced.

On the basis of Birinchi Rubber Engineering Plant LLC TATNEFT and Uzkimyosanoat JSC planned to create a joint venture. It was assumed that BRZ will be integrated into the tire business of TATNEFT.

"The signed agreement creates unique opportunities for TATNEFT to diversify and expand the production and sale of tire products of TATNEFT Group on the markets of Central Asia and the Middle East promising in terms of capacity and annual growth rates," the Russian company noted.

2014-2021

The Birinchi Rubber Engineering Plant (BRZ) was founded in 2014 by a decree of the President of Uzbekistan on organizing the construction of a rubber factory on the territory of the free industrial zone of Angren.

Since July 2018, the production of products with the following annual production capacity has begun: 3 million car tires (21 standard sizes); 200 thousand pcs. Agricultural tires (2 sizes); 100 thousand linear meters of conveyor belt (30 types of rubber-fabric and rubber-wire belts).

In April 2021, Газета.uz, citing Vice Speaker of the Legislative Chamber Alisher Kadirov, reported that the plant, built at the expense of Chinese Eximbank in the amount of $156.4 million, was supposed to fully cover the import of a local automaker (project chronology), but "due to poor quality" 100 thousand tires remained unsold, and during this period UzAuto Motors imported auto tires worth $60 million.

Later, this statement was commented on by Uzkimyosanoat and indicated that the low indicators were associated with the coronavirus pandemic, which is why "the import of raw materials was limited, production was repeatedly suspended, sales decreased."