In news– The Adani group has suspended work on a Rs 34,900 crore petrochemical project at Mundra in Gujarat recently.
What is the Mundra Petrochemical project?
- Adani group’s flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) had in 2021 incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary, Mundra Petrochem Ltd, for setting up a greenfield coal-to-PVC plant at Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) land in Kutch district of Gujarat.
- The plant was to have a poly-vinyl-chloride (PVC) production capacity of 2,000 KTPA (kilo tonne per annum) requiring 3.1 million tonne per annum (MTPA) of coal that was to be imported from Australia, Russia and other countries.
- The suspension of the Mundra project comes in the aftermath of the damaging Hindenburg report, which alleged accounting fraud, stock manipulations and other corporate governance lapses.
What is poly-vinyl-chloride (PVC)?
- PVC is the world’s third-most widely produced synthetic polymer of plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene.
- It finds wide applications – from flooring, to making sewage pipes and other pipe applications, in insulation on electrical wires, and manufacture of aprons etc.
- PVC comes in two basic forms: rigid and flexible. The rigid form of PVC is used in construction for pipe and in profile applications such as doors and windows.
- It is also used in making plastic bottles, non-food packaging, food-covering sheets and plastic cards (such as bank or membership cards).
- India produced roughly 1.45 million tonnes of PVC in 2022 and imported another 1.5 million tonnes as per data from the Alkali Manufacturers Association of India.
- The Mundra Petrochemicals project was planned to bridge the gap between domestic production and demand for PVC in India, turning India into a net exporter of PVC instead.