Thirumalai Chemicals restarts operations

Chennai, Dec 15 (IANS) The Rs.5.87-billion Thirumalai Chemicals Ltd Monday restarted production of phthalic anhydride, an industrial chemical used to make paints, at its Ranipet plant near here after nearly two months.

In October the company stopped production of the chemical owing to surge in imports of the commodity from South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan and Israel that resulted in a price fall.

At that time, Thirumalai Chemicals and other Indian phthalic anhydride manufacturers urged the central government to put in place appropriate trade remedy measures like anti-dumping or safeguard duties to protect the domestic market.

Thirumalai Chemicals at the start of this fiscal had a capacity of 110,000 tonnes per annum (tpa).

Top company officials were not available to comment on the impact of the two months' production loss and when normal production of phthalic anhydride would resume.