Building-materials industry
The building materials industry is tied to almost all branches of the economy, since materials are needed for building factories, housing, roads and irrigation works. The most important material is cement: it is produced at Quvasoy, Ohangaron, Angren, Navoi and Bekabad and at Zafarabad, and also in Sherabad district of Surkhandarya. The Ohangaron and Navoi combines are the biggest. Deposits of limestone and clay are the main raw material for cement. Uzbekistan is rich in marble: the Gazgan deposit in the Nurata mountains in Navoi region is famous worldwide, and the Orkutsoy deposit is in Tashkent region; marble is finished at the Tashkent and Gazalkent plants. Glass plants work at Chirchiq and in the Jizzakh region. Reinforced concrete products are made in the Tashkent, Fergana, Samarkand and Bukhara regions, and silicate blocks in Khorezm, Bukhara, Fergana and Jizzakh. Finished parts are heavy and awkward to carry, so plants making big parts are built near large construction sites; sometimes raw material is brought to the site and the structure is cast on the spot. Building houses in villages on model projects also raises demand for building materials.
“Choosing materials”: groups get a house, a bridge and a garden wall; they justify which materials (cement, brick, glass, marble) are needed.