MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant Chemicals India Limited announced that it has restarted operations at its production facilities in the country, following the partial relaxations from COVID - 19 related Nationwide Lockdown by Government of India, according to Kemicalinfo.
Clariant’s production facilities situated in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are back in partial operation with limited capacity and will continue with partial operations till complete relaxations are granted.
The company in its stock exchange statement said, "Pursuant to the partial relaxations from Nationwide Lockdown granted by Central Government and advisories issued by State Governments in order to prevent and tackle the spread of COVID - 19, the Companys manufacturing units/factories situated in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are back in partial operation with limited capacity."
"This partial operation will continue till complete relaxations are granted in this regard. The Company will continue to closely monitor the situation and take appropriate action as per regulatory guidance. The Company shall keep all the stakeholders informed about further update(s) through Stock Exchanges."
As MRC reported earlier, in early March 2020, Sabic announced that it has purchased additional shares in Clariant, increasing its holding in the company from 24.99% to 31.5%.
We remind that SABIC Europe, an affiliate of SABIC, conducted a maintenance work at its cracker No.3 at Geleen site in the Netherlands last autumn. The planned maintenance started in September and lasted around 2 months. The company operates two steam crackers in Geleen which are capable of producing 1,250,000 tons/year of ethylene and 675,000 tons/year of propylene in total.
Earlier last year, SABIC took off-stream its SABIC Olefins 4 cracker owing to technical issues on May 10, 2019. Further details on duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained. Located in beek, the Netherlands, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 690,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 360,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC