Equipment failures are once again causing production problems at Namhung Youth Chemical Complex, one of North Korea’s largest fertilizer plants.
According to a source in South Pyongan Province on Wednesday, production at the plant is frequently coming to a halt due to “poor connections” between fertilizer production processes and equipment failures at certain workstations.
Located in Anju, South Pyongan Province, the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex is the country’s second largest fertilizer factory. It has been in operation since the 1970s. With a focus on the production of chemical fertilizers through coal gasification, the plant has experienced repeated shutdowns over the last couple of years as its equipment has grown obsolete.
The source said the plant’s fertilizer production equipment is over 50 years old and increasingly antiquated. Major parts need replacing. In particular, its air compressors are insufficient to meet the operational demands of the plant, which has expanded since it first opened, and are so old that they are hurting operational efficiency.
Making the problem worse, Namhung Youth Chemical Complex cannot secure the parts it would need to replace equipment right away with trade suspended due to the closure of the country’s borders in the wake of COVID-19.
The plant has resolved to secure the parts on its own in the spirit of “self-reliance.” However, there has long been concern that this amounts to little more than a patch up, and that shutdowns could reoccur at any time.
Recently, the plant’s gas cleaning station and pressurization station experienced complete shutdowns once again due to equipment failures.
The source said the failure at the pressurization station was caused by “damage to bearings.” He said the bearings were past their use-by date and should have been replaced earlier, but plant managers continued to use them because they had no replacements.
This is not the first time Namhung Youth Chemical Complex has suspended production due to failures to deliver equipment or parts.
Quoting a local North Korean official, the January 2021 edition of a North Korean trade briefing published monthly by South Korea’s Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said fertilizer production at the plant had come to a stop due to shortages of imported parts for its coal gasification process.
KITA said high-pressure valves and high-pressure sprayers needed to be replaced due to wear-and-tear, but with no items on hand, production had been suspended for a week with no solution in sight.
Despite this situation, North Korea has been leaning on plants to “unconditionally” achieve demanded increases in fertilizer production. This appears to have led to an explosion in 2020 that killed or wounded several people.
Moreover, the National Intelligence Service told a closed-door audit session of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee last October that there was an explosion at Namhung Youth Chemical Complex in Aug. 2021. According to the agency, the explosion was caused by an overload after the plant was put into overdrive despite limited resources.
The role of Namhung Youth Chemical Complex has grown even more important this year with North Korean authorities strongly urging an increase in agricultural production to “completely resolve” the country’s food problems. But as operational difficulties continue, the plant will likely face difficulties producing significant results in production.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
