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850 industries run out of gas

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Industrial production in 850 units running on natural gas in Bharuch, Ankleshwar and Surat has come to a standstill after Gujarat Gas Co. Ltd completely stopped the supply, citing shortage of LNG as well as high cost of natural gas. GGCL implemented gas cut in around 50 per cent of the textile processing units in Surat and surrounding areas like Palsana on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, all the 100 textile processing units and over 350 small units like chemical, yarn and other textile ancillary units stopped receiving gas, seriously affecting the production of finished fabrics and rendering over 40,000 workers without work.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Around 300 industrial units in Ankleshwar, Panoli and Jhagadia have shut down their plants due to curtailment in gas supply. These three industrial clusters house units of some of the big pharma companies like Lupin, Wockhardt, Sun Pharma and Cadila Pharma, besides several chemical and paint makers. A G Chitre, president, Heubach Colors that makes specialty pigments told TOI, &quot;We have closed down our two plants as we can&#39;t run the boiler, thermic fluid heater, dryer and distillation vessels without gas. We will incur daily production loss of approximately Rs 2 crore.&quot;</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">The industrial belts of Bharuch, Ankleshwar and Surat have more than 4,000 big and small industrial units. Out of these units, the GGCL has been supplying gas to around 850 industrial units including chemical, pharmaceuticals, dyes intermediates, paint, glass, ceramic, textile yarn, textile dyeing and printing units, textile ancillary units etc. in Bharuch, Surat and Ankleshwar. The daily gas requirement by the 850 units in Bharuch, Ankleshwar and Surat put together is pegged at around 2 million metric standard cubic meter per Day (MMSCMD). Sources said the prices of imported re-gasified liquefied has crossed $22 per mmBtu (million metric British thermal unit). Moreover, the supply shortage has been aggravated due to skyrocketing demand of LNG in China and Japan due to the cold season.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Source-On Request</span></span></span></p>