Amid shutdown, dozen listed companies resume partial operations

Over a dozen listed companies have received permission — from the respective authorities — to resume partial operation of their units across India, mainly to meet Covid-19 challenges.

As the country is struggling to cope with the pandemic — with the number of positive cases increasing each day — the Centre and various State governments have relaxed norms under the Essential Commodities Act, allowing these companies to manufacture critical products such as hand sanitisers, chemicals and packagers.

Among the companies that resumed partial production are Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals, Polyplex Corporation, De Nora, Chamal Lal Setia Corporation, Roto Pumps, Century Textiles & Industries, Kanpur Plastipacks, Orient Aromatics, Bhagiradha Chemicals & Industries, Camlin Fine Chemicals and Dhampur Sugar Mills.

Polyplex Corporation, which had suspended operations at its manufacturing facilities at Khatima and Bazpur (Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand), said that consequent upon receipt of approval of State administration, its manufacturing facility at Khatima had partially resumed operations from April 3.

“Further, steps are underway to shortly commence partial operations at the company’s manufacturing facility at Bazpur as well,” it said in a notice to the stock exchanges. It added that its manufacturing units in Thailand, Turkey, the US and Indonesia continue to operate normally.

Cyient, a global engineering and technology solutions firm, has received clearance for its Mysuru facility to run its MedTech manufacturing line to support the production of medical equipment that is critical in the fight against Covid-19. Its products are used in X-ray generators from GE Healthcare and diagnosis units from Molbio Diagnostics to enable rapid disease testing in India.

Chaman Lal Setia, a producer and exporter of basmati rice, said in a notice to the exchanges that its plant at Karnal (Haryana) and its packaging office situated at Gandhi Dham (Gujarat), have resumed working. Similarly, Roto Pumps resumed production from Monday while Manali Petrochemicals restarted production of propylene glycol from April 3. “Resumption of production of the other products will be decided in due course,” said Manali Petrochemicals.

Last Friday, the shares of Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals had zoomed 18 per cent after it started partial operation of caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, sodium hypo and chlorine filling facilities at its Dahej complex and also caustic soda and Koh at its Vadodara complex.

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