Covid-19 delays threaten reliability at India's Fact

State-owned Indian fertilizer manufacturer and importer Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore (Fact) has delayed annual maintenance because of the coronavirus lockdown, possibly impacting its plants' reliability in the coming months.

 

Fact typically carries out annual maintenance in April-May, but India's lockdown, in place since 25 March, has affected the availability of staff and materials. The firm has accordingly delayed some maintenance until next year and said this could affect reliability in the coming months. But essential works at all plants were scheduled to have been completed by the second half of May.

 

Fact operates two major fertilizer production facilities on the outskirts of the city of Kochi in southwestern Kerala state. The firm's Cochin site produced 505,000t of NPS 20-20-0+13S in the financial year to 31 March 2019.

 

Fact announced a shutdown of its phosphoric acid plant at the Cochin site at the end of March, following the lockdown. The firm had issued, scrapped and reissued a tender to import 25,000t of NPS 20-20-0+13S, closing it on 1 June, pointing to possible domestic production constraints. But Fact received no offers and has since said it is unlikely to return to the market.

 

Fact also runs a facility at Udyogamandal that produced 142,000t of ammonium sulphate and 129,000t of NPS in 2018-19.

 

Minimal Covid-19 impact for 2020-21
 

Fact expects normal operations in the 2020-21 financial year, with output and marketing performing "reasonably well" in March-May, despite lockdown restrictions.

 

It sees operations continuing as normal for the remainder of the financial year, following the prioritisation of agriculture and businesses involved in the food chain by the Indian government.

 

But capex projects could be delayed, the firm said. Fact plans build a new 1,650 t/d NPK plant at Ambalamedu in Kerala.

 

Shortage of labour, particularly for bagging and loading, as well as restrictions on people's movement, were the major problems the firm faced at the start of lockdown.

 

Fact said it was forced to curtail production, with a temporary shutdown of Udyogamandal and minimal staffing at the Kochi plants.

 

Operations at the port of Cochi were also impacted, and the firm cancelled cargoes of raw materials. Fact is an occasional importer of phosphate rock as a raw material for NPS production. The firm awarded a purchase tender earlier this month, following delays to the initial closing date of 27 March.