Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore has restarted production of caprolactam after a gap of nearly nine years years, making it a "momentous" event for the public sector company. While restarting caprolactam will add about ₹600 crore to ₹700 crore to the turnover of the company, the product from FACT will also be a major import substitution.
The restarting of caprolactam production comes as the country is celebrating “Azadi Ka Amrith Mahotsav” in line with the nation’s vision of achieving self-sufficiency, said a communication from FACT here.
FACT has a capacity to produce 50,000 tonnes of caprolactam per year. Caprolactam is produced in India by FACT and Gujarat State Fertilizer Company. There is a demand for 1.2 lakh tonnes to 1.3 lakh tonnes of caprolactam in the country annually and FACT expects to sell most of its product in the domestic market, considering the quality of the product and reputation enjoyed by the company.
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Production of 50,000 tonnes of caprolactam will also result in the production of 2.25 lakh tonnes of ammonium sulphate. Caprolactam production has been relaunched with LNG as the major feedstock.
Caprolactam is a petrochemical product that goes into nylon-6 production, which in turn is a raw material for filament yarn, fishing nets, tyre cords and other products. With limited production capacity in the country, demand for caprolactam is big in the domestic market.
Caprolactam production was stopped in FACT in October 2012 with the cost of the feedstock naphta going up sharply, making production financially unviable. Though FACT shifted to natural gas in 2013, the cost of the fuel ruled high, preventing restarting of production.
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Though the price of natural gas crashed in 2013, FACT could not restart caprolcatam production as pollution control norms changed and the company had to establish new measures. A shortage of experienced hands was another hurdle that held up restarting of the production.