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Know the PSUs under the department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 28, Apr 2015, 17:13 pm IST | UPDATED: 29, Apr 2015, 11:55 am IST

Know the PSUs under the department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals

New Delhi: There are three chemicals Public Sector Units (PSUs) under the administrative control of Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals.

The Hindustan Insecticides Ltd. (HIL), Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd. (HOCL) and Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd. (HFL) are the main PSUs the department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals. HFL is a subsidiary of HOCL.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers Hansraj Gangaram Ahir in reply to an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha.

Brief details of these PSUs are given in the following table:


Name of PSU

Products manufactured

States in which plants / units located

Whether sick or closed and reasons thereof

1. HIL

DDT, Agro-chemicals and seed business

Udyogamandal (Kerala), Rasayani (Maharashtra) and Bhatinda (Punjab)

Not a sick company. All its plants / units are operational.

2. HOCL

Phenol, Acetone, Aniline and Nitro-aromatics like, nitrobenzene etc.

Kochi (Kerala) and Rasayani (Maharashtra)

HOCL is operational but is a sick company and registered with BIFR. Major reasons for poor financial position of the company are the high manpower cost, uneconomic small capacity of its plants, gradual reduction in tariff barriers since 1991 making it difficult to compete in the global scenario, obsolete technology, high investment in some projects which became unviable after economic liberalization, high power cost coupled with high cost of feedstock, and severe international competition primarily due to dumping of its main products.

 

3. HFL

Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (PTFE) and Chloro Di Fluoro Methane (CFM-22)

Hyderabad (Telangana)

HFL is operational but is a sick company and registered with BIFR. Major reasons for the poor financial condition of the company are uneconomical plant size, energy intensive technology and high manpower cost.

The action / steps taken for revival of HOCL and HFL are as follows:

(i)  HOCL – In January, 2014, a consultant viz. M/s FEDO (FACT Engineering and Design Organization) was appointed for conducting a revival study for HOCL. As the FEDO’s report did not take into account the present scenario prevailing in the domestic and international market, crashing crude prices, drastic downfall in the prices of phenol and acetone, the Board of Directors of HOCL has decided to appoint a new consultant for preparing a fresh revival plan. Since HOCL is registered as a sick company with BIFR, the fresh revival plan for HOCL, based on the report of the new consultant, will be submitted for consideration and further decision of BIFR. Further, provision for Plan loan of Rs.17 crore has been made in the Department’s budget for 2015-16 (BE) for schemes / projects of the company.

(ii)   HFL - For revival and growth of HFL, the company has adopted the strategy to develop fluoro specialty chemicals and switching over from single product to multi product facility to reduce dependency on PTFE (Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene). Plan loan of Rs.16.80 crore was provided to HFL in 2014-15 for plant refurbishment schemes and new initiatives. This included Rs.3.60 crore for development of modified PTFE, which has higher profit margins. In 2015-16, Plan loan provision of Rs.5 crore has been kept in the Department’s budget for the schemes / projects of HFL.

Presently, there is no proposal for auctioning of various equipment etc. of plants / units of any of the three chemical PSUs under the administrative control of the Ministry.