The Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL) plant has suspended production just 12 hours after resuming operations, following a shutdown that lasted nearly six and a half months.

According to officials, production began at around 3:30 am on Sunday but was halted by 3:15 pm the same day due to a mechanical malfunction.

“We resumed production on Saturday night, but it was stopped on Sunday because of a technical fault,” said Mizanur Rahman, managing director of CUFL.

This marks yet another disruption for the state-run fertilizer factory, which has faced repeated production halts in recent years. Earlier, the plant remained closed from January 3 to February 25 and again from April 11 to October 18 due to operational and gas supply issues. Gas deliveries to the plant resumed on October 19.

The factory requires about 48 to 52 million cubic feet of gas per day to operate. At full capacity, CUFL can produce up to 1,200 tons of urea and 310,000 tons of ammonia annually.