FACT plant resumes operations

Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) has restarted the caprolactam plant, which was closed for the last six months. Production in this plant was stopped following unprecedented fall in the demand for caprolactam.

Added to this was the fallout of the economic recession, which worsened the situation during the last three months of 2008. Most of the caprolactam consumers had either closed their production units or curtailed capacity utilisation. The global capacity utilisation of caprolactam plants fell to 56 per cent. The price of caprolactam, which hovered around $2,400 per tonne during September 2008, nosedived to around $1,150.

But now, since the beginning of 2009, market sentiments have improved and FACT could clear its pending stock of about 850 tonne caprolactam, a release said.