Chemplast Sanmar

Coordinates: 13°2′43.3″N 80°15′28.3″E / 13.045361°N 80.257861°E / 13.045361; 80.257861 Chemplast Sanmar Limited is a chemical company based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It is part of Sanmar Group which has businesses in Chemicals, Shipping, Engineering and Metals. It has a turnover of over Rs.65 billion and a presence in some 25 businesses, with manufacturing units spread over numerous locations in India.^[1]^[2]

Chemplast Sanmar's manufacturing facilities are located at Mettur, Panruti, Cuddalore and Ponneri in Tamil Nadu, Shinoli in Maharashtra, and Karaikal in the Union Territory of Puducherry. It is a major manufacturer of PVC resins, chlorochemicals and piping systems. The Cuddalore PVC project commissioned in September 2009 is the largest such project to come up in Tamil Nadu. It's aggregate capacity of 235,000 tons makes it one of the largest PVC players in India.^[3]

Chemplast Sanmar Limited won two awards, at the 7th National Award for Excellence in Water Management organized by the CII in Hyderabad in December 2010. The flagship company of The Sanmar Group won the "Innovative Case Study" and "Excellent Water Efficient Unit" awards for the successful case study of zero liquid discharge at Mettur.^[4]

Chemplast Sanmar, a pioneer in Zero Liquid Discharge has implemented this process successfully in all its manufacturing plants. Chemplast has not discharged a single drop of treated effluent since September 2009 in Mettur while in Cuddalore and Karaikkal there has been no discharge since inception.^[5]

Individual investments

Chemplast has developments across India.

These include:

Mettur, Tamil Nadu

Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu.

History

1962 Incorporation of the company for manufacture of PVC resins/ compounds and fabrication of PVC products.

1967 PVC Plant at Mettur commissioned with a capacity of 6,000 TPA, in collaboration with BF Goodrich. PVC pipes production also commences. Among the pioneers to bring PVC pipes to India.

1978 Commissioning of Industrial Alcohol Plant, Krishnagiri

1978 First stage debottlenecking of PVC capacity to 13500 TPA

1978 At Mettur 4 MW HDO based Power Plant installed and commissioned

1981 Second stage debottlenecking of PVC capacity to 20,000 TPA

1982 Acquisition of Arvind Distillery & Chemicals Ltd at Panruti

1985 Acquisition of controlling stake and take over of management of Mettur Chemical & Industrial Corporation (MCIC) Ltd with capacities of Caustic Soda 48000 TPA and Chloromethane 11000 TPA.

1985 Commercial production of Battery Separator Resin (based on ICI technology) commences

1986 Combined Cycle Power Plant commissioned at Mettur

1986 Golden Jubilee of MCIC

1986 Exit from PVC Pipes business

1987 Consequent on global exit from PVC, BF Goodrich divests stake in Chemplast

1987 PVC capacity augmentation to 30,000 TPA

1988 LSHS-based Captive Power Plant of 6.5 MW commissioned at Caustic Soda plant, Mettur. Pioneers in captive power generation for electro-intensive industry

1988 MCIC merges with Chemplast

1988 Commercial production of Refrigerant Gases commences

1991 Silver Jubilee of Chemplast Sanmar

1992 PVC capacity expansion from 30,000 TPA to 48,000 TPA

1992 Diversification into Shipping – acquisition of six bulk carriers over two years

1996 PVC capacity expansion from 48,000 TPA to 66,000 TPA

1997 Production capacity of Chloromethanes enhanced from 11,000 MT to 22,000 MT

1998 State-of-the-art incinerator commissioned for chlorinated hydrocarbon waste, with energy recovery features - first of its kind in India

1998 Captive power generation capacity at Mettur enhanced to 48.5 MW - self-sufficiency achieved in power requirements

1999 Shipping business spun off as an independent business

2000 Oxy Chlorination plant commissioned at Mettur (an already operating plant procured from NOCIL, Bombay and shifted to Mettur Dam, re-erected and commissioned; installed at a fraction of the time and cost of a new plant)

2003 Acquisition of Kothari Sugars & Chemicals’ caustic soda plant at Karaikal and merger with Chemplast Sanmar

2006 Re-entry into the PVC pipes business through acquisition; products marketed under the brand name ‘Trubore’

2007 Foundation stone laid for new state-of-the-art PVC facility at Cuddalore

2007 Conversion of mercury cells to environment-friendly membrane cell process for caustic soda production at Mettur

2007 Marine Terminal facility commissioned at Karaikal for import of ethylene and export of caustic soda

2008 Landmark Zero Liquid Discharge facility goes on stream at Mettur (March 2008)

2008 Trubore Piping Systems commissions 20,000 TPA Greenfield PVC Pipes facility at Shinoli, Maharashtra

2009 State-of-the-art greenfield PVC project commissioned with a capacity of 170,000 TPA at Cuddalore, along with a Marine Terminal facility for import of VCM.

2009: Coalyard commissioned at Mettur

2010: Coal-based captive power plant goes online at Mettur

2010 Mettur Dam Railway Station with Chemplast’s contribution starts operating

Sports

The Sanmar Group has helped support domestic cricket for over 50 years. Chemplast Sanmar supports Jolly Rovers and the Alwarpet Cricket Club in the Tamil Nadu Cricket Academy (TNCA) 1st Division.^[6] It has the distinction of being the only corporate that has supplied the national cricket team with over 30 players. The prominent names among them include Robin Singh, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Karthik, L Balaji, Piyush Chawla, Munaf Patel, S. Badrinath, Murali Vijay and Ravichandran Ashwin.^[7] Bharat Reddy, the former Indian wicket keeper has been in charge of talent spotting and nurturing the Chemplast-supported teams for the last 35 years.^[8]

Mettur

Chemplast Sanmar owns five plants in Mettur, a small town located around the dam which controls the entry of the River Kaveri into Tamil Nadu. The river is the lifeblood of the state's agriculture and provides water to the heavily populated districts of Salem, Trichy, Thanjur and Nagapattinam amongst others.

In response to a series of allegations by locals, in particular concerning a serious chlorine gas leak on 18 July 2004, the Indian People's Tribunal on the Environment and Human Rights conducted a three-day investigation. The IPT report of July 2005, headed by Justice Akbar Basha Kadri, listed as its findings:^[9]

"that Chemplast Sanmar Ltd. has indeed indiscrimately disposed toxic wastes in and around its facility"

"that contamination [to local groundwaters and lands] was caused by a downward spread of contaminants from Chemplast's waste facilities. We also find that the farmers, landless labourers an residents dependent on these lands and water have not been compensated. Neither has any effort been made to remediate the environment"

"that there had been many gas leakages in the past and that the survivors of the 18th July chlorine release have not received even their legally entitled relief"

"that the company is found to have violated labour safety laws and practices. It has placed its workers in harms way, and done nothing when they were harmed"^[10]

These findings also went on to suggest that Chemplast Sanmar had been responsible, alongside the State and the Chemplast workers Unions, for "downplaying serious incidents" and followed this up by suggesting that the Government had been "neglient in fulfilling its duties of ensuring, at the very least, safe drinking water to the people."

Sanmar has set up zero effluents discharge mechanism in its Mettur plant to curb pollution. For this effort, the company won the CII Water Award for Excellence in Water Management organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Hyderabad.^[11]

References

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