Haldia Petro shuts operations for 4 months to proceed with Project Supermax

14-Oct-09

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) has decided on a 4 month shutdown of operations at its plant in a bid to pursue Project Supermax, to augment plant capacity from 5,20,000 tpa to 6,70,000 tpa. The shutdown, will impact company performance figures as no production for four months will adversely affect sales. The decision to go ahead with the project was taken in 2006 with a target to commission it by October 2007. At that time, markets were extremely bullish, hence the project was deferred as Haldia Petro did not want to stop production in robust market conditions. This delay in implementation of Supermax will cost the company almost twice the initial amount estimatedThe project, which is already running behind schedule by over two years, has already seen estimated costs rising from Rs 675 crore to Rs 1,230 crore.