India’s LG Polymers ordered to ship stored SM out of Visakhapatnam PS plant

MUMBAI (ICIS)–LG Polymers, a subsidiary of Korean producer LG Chem in India, was ordered to immediately ship styrene monomer (SM) out of its Visakhapatnam plant in Andrha Pradesh following a gas leak at its plant that killed 12 people on 7 May.

The state government of the south Indian state wanted to ensure that the feedstock chemical for the company’s 118,000 tonne/year polystyrene (PS) plant is removed from the site in three to four days from 11 May.

“We have shipped about 8,000 tonnes of styrene by a container vessel on Monday and another will carry the remaining 5,000 in the next couple of days,” Visakhapatnam district Collector V Vinay Chand said in a press conference.

SM stored at LG Polymers’ premises included imported volumes from Singapore. All these will be shipped out, said Chand.

The company may send the chemical back to its parent firm in South Korea, a state government official said.

The decision was taken after an expert panel led by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) found out that the required safety and technical parameters were not being maintained at the plant site, the official said.

Apart from the 12 fatalities, around 400 people were hospitalised due to the styrene gas leakage at LG Polymers plant on 7 May.

INDIA ISSUES GUIDELINES FOR PLANT RESTARTS AFTER LOCKDOWN
Following the LG Polymers incident, the NDMA has issued guidelines for restarting manufacturing industries when India’s nationwide lockdown ends on 17 May.

“While restarting the unit, consider the first week as the trial or test run period; ensure all safety protocols; and do not try to achieve high production targets,” the guidelines from NDMA said.

The NDMA added that employees who work on specific equipment must be made aware of the need to identify abnormalities or other potentially hazardous signs which indicate the need for an immediate maintenance or, if required, a shutdown.

All chemicals in storage must be checked for chemical stability before use in any process; and supply pipelines and valves should be checked for signs of damage.

For workers, sanitation rules were established to minimize risk of infection from the deadly novel coronavirus.

India has been under a lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 70,000 people and caused nearly 3000 casualties. The lockdown of nearly two months will be lifted in phases from the second half of May.

Currently, the country has been divided into zones, depending on severity of coronavirus cases.

Companies operating in green and orange zones have been allowed to restart operations slowly while factories in red zones will not be allowed to restart production yet.

Industrial townships including Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Kanpur remain in the red zone.

LOGISTICS, MANPOWER PROBLEMS REMAIN
A number of companies are complaining of inability to restart plants properly since most of their upstream suppliers or downstream markets are in the red zones.

In Gujarat, which is home to the largest number of chemical manufacturers in India, industrial operations have begun at 4,000 industrial units across seven districts. Among those that restarted operations in the state are auto, chemicals and plastics manufacturers, including Deepak Nitrite, GHCL, Navine Fluorine, SRF Ltd, DCM Shriram, Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL), Atul Ltd.

In Maharashtra, the second biggest industrial hub in the country, nearly 25,000 companies have resumed operations in green and orange zones in the state, according to state industries minister Subhash Desai.

But unless production is resumed across the country, manufacturers may find it difficult to ramp up operations as there are too many restrictions in the red zones.

Chemical plants that resumed operations are facing logistical problems, and now, a severe manpower crunch, as the Indian government began running special trains since the past 10 days to help migrant labourers return to their homes.

This could further delay restarting and ramping up of operations at a number of manufacturers in the country.

Focus article by Priya Jestin

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