MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haldia Petrochemicals is likely to opt for a temporary shutdown from the fourth week of this month following severe working capital crisis that is resulting in a shortage of naphtha and low plant load for the last few months, as per Plastemart.
It has been learnt that most of the technical officers of HPL, as well as shortlisted bidder Indian Oil, are not averse to the idea of a shutdown for a few weeks to cut down continuous losses and maintenance of the plant. The capacity of the plant is 260 tonnes per hour, but it is operating at 110-120 tonnes on average.
The firm had an accumulated loss of Rs 2,500 crore till March 2013. From April to October, 2013, HPL has posted a loss of Rs 521 crore taking the accumulated losses to over Rs 3,000 crore. The net worth of HPL has already eroded by Rs 50 crore. If the losses continue, then the company will have to go to BIFR.
As MRC wrote previously, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court dismissed all appeals of the West Bengal government, WBIDC and Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd over a dispute between them and The Chatterjee Group regarding 155 mln shares of the ailing petrochemical company and allowed the Chatterjee Group to move to International Court in Paris for arbitration regarding the disputed 15.5 crore shares. This block constitutes 9.22% equity stake of the company and holds the key for management control.
Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC