Joint venture of Atul Ltd gets clearance to expand production of its MCA plant

On Wednesday, Atul Limited announced that its joint venture with Nouryon, a leading global technology player in MCA, has received the environmental clearance for its 32,000 metric tonnes monochloroacetic acid (MCA) plant in Gujarat, India. 

Anaven, the 50-50 joint venture of the two companies, will become the largest MCA plant in India and will use chlorine and hydrogen manufactured by Atul to produce up to 32,000 metric tonnes of MCA per year. The plant can be further expanded to 60,000 metric tonnes per year in the future. The expansion is expected to be completed in 2020 with the aim of supplying MCA to the Indian market by the end of the year.

MCA is an essential ingredient for the growing Indian agricultural, personal care, and pharmaceutical markets. The company intends to consume a portion of the acid directly in its own production and the balance will be supplied to the Indian market.

The company’s partner in the joint venture, Nouryon, is the leading global technology player in MCA and operates plants in the Netherlands, China, and Japan, supplying to customers who use it to produce crop protection products, cleaning and personal care products, pharmaceuticals, thickening agents for food, oil drilling, mining, and cosmetics.

Speaking on the development, Sunil Lalbhai, Chairman and Managing Director of Atul Limited said that the company was on track to complete construction, testing, and commissioning of the facility built, using technology from Nouryon and expect to reach full production capacity in the first half of 2021.

On Wednesday, the stock of Atul Limited closed at Rs 5,925.85 per share, down by 0.02 per cent or Rs 0.90 per share on BSE, against a 0.40 per cent gain in the benchmark index. The 52-week high is recorded at Rs 7,021.25 and the 52-week low is Rs 3,256.60 on BSE.