Kerala - Kochi   

High cost of raw materials hits TCC functioning

KOCHI: State-owned Travancore Cochin Chemicals (TCC) is in serious trouble with continuing shortage of key raw material common salt and its spiralling price.

The heavy chemicals company is also going through a difficult time with the price of furnace oil going up substantially, company sources said.

Shortage of common salt has been caused by heavy rains in Tuticorin which is a key source of the raw material for TCC. The price of the raw material has gone up from Rs. 1,400 per tonne to Rs. 2,900. According to company sources, the price of the raw material was likely to go beyond Rs. 3,000 a tonne.

TCC, manufacturing and marketing caustic soda, chlorine and allied chemicals, requires more than one lakh tonnes of common salt a year.

With the supply of common salt from Tuticorin drying up, the raw material is being sourced from Gujarat and the cost of the transport will be factored into the new price, throwing TCC into a difficult position.

The rise in the price of furnace oil too has made life difficult for TCC which has firmed up plans to expand and diversify its activities.

The company has a 175-tonne-per day installed capacity for caustic soda. TCC, the first company in India to produce rayon grade caustic soda, has inducted the latest production technology to obtain the best results on the energy savings front.

The impending hike in power tariff in the State will also affect the fortunes of TCC in a big way, company sources pointed out

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