Tata Chemicals shuts Haldia plant for pipeline relocation

Tata Chemicals on Tuesday said that its fertiliser plant in West Bengal's Haldia would remain shut from February 21 to April 15, on account of "ammonia pipeline relocating project hook-up and commissioning".

"...we wish to now inform you that the Haldia plant will remain shut from February 21, 2017, to April 15, 2017, on account of ammonia pipeline relocating project hook-up and commissioning, along with annual shutdown of the plant for planned repair and maintenance work," the company said in a regulatory filing to BSE.

The plant manufactures DAP (Diammonium phosphate), SSP (Single superphosphate) and complex NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) fertilisers wherein ammonia is used as one of the feedstock.

The company had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sanjana Cryogenics Storage (SCSL), its ammonia terminal operator, for rerouting a portion of the ammonia pipeline that runs from Haldia Dock to ammonia storage tank.

The pipeline re-routing activity has been done on the directive of Kolkata Port Trust for facilitating to set up a Multi-Modal Terminal Hub at Haldia by Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the company said.

It had earlier said the expected pipeline re-routing would be scheduled in February-March 2017 for about five weeks.

Prior to that, it also had said the activity was likely to cause a shutdown of operations by about five weeks in September-October 2016 due to interruption of ammonia supply to the TCL-Haldia phosphatic fertiliser plant.

--IANS

bdc/lok/vt