News published in The Telegraph today 22/01/15 HPL starts restart drill Our Special Correspondent Calcutta, Jan. 21: Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) has kicked off the process of reopening its plant after a gap of over seven months with the captive power plant going onstream today. Bengals showpiece project - that had downed shutters on July 6, citing technical snag as the reason - had failed to resume production till date because of lack of funds. Industry sources said the company might bring its products - polymers and chemicals - back to the market by the end of this month, bringing cheer to thousands of downstream units in eastern India, especially Bengal. HPLs closure had resulted in a polymer shortfall of 10,000-12,000 tonnes a month in eastern India. Other suppliers such as Indian Oil Corporation, Reliance Industries and GAIL (India) Ltd had stepped in to fill the void. However, makers of injection syringes, crates, bottles and buckets are hit as HPL has a near monopoly over polymer grades used in these products. HPL, which had been operating at half of its installed capacity, was supplying 36,000 tonnes of polymer a month across the country. Of this, eastern India was absorbing 17,000 tonnes, including 11,500 tonnes by Bengal units. HPL is set to resume production at a time prices of naphtha, the main raw material, as well as end-products polymers and chemicals are on a slide. Following the dip in crude prices, naphtha rates have nosedived 60 per cent to $400 a tonne from a high of $1,000 a tonne. Polymer prices are also falling. Falling naphtha prices is good news for HPL, which does not have enough working capital to buy raw material to run the plant at full capacity. HPL has sought a Rs 900-crore loan from its lenders as working capital, while The Chatterjee Group, the private promoter of the company and now in control of the management, has offered Rs 100 crore. Sources said the banks were yet to release the funds to HPL even as TCG, which is contracted to buy the Bengal governments majority stake in HPL by February 28, is ready with the money. Banks have to extend the loan to start production in the next seven days. The company will buy naphtha from a public sector unit to start production. However, more orders are required to sustain production. The management has always maintained that it will resume production only when the plant can run at full capacity. HPL has sustained heavy losses over the past two years because of low capacity utilisation.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 04:23:36 +0000
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