India’s GAIL shut petrochemical complex as lockdown restraint logistics, demand

It is reported that GAIL (India) Ltd has shut its petrochemical complex in Pata, Uttar Pradesh as the nationwide lockdown severely hit demand and creates logistics bottleneck that leads to bloated warehousing issue.

In fact, market sources informed that following the lockdown, which started on 24 March 2020, about two-thirds of trucks that used to transport the materials to buyers stopped operations.

The plant houses two ethylene crackers with a combined capacity of 950,000 tons/year. Downstream plants include 210,000 tons/year HDPE/LLDPE swing unit, 200,000 tons/year standalone HDPE units, and a 400,000 tons/year metallocene PE unit.  

It is unclear when the company would restart the operation as the Indian government extended the lockdown until 3 May 2020 to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.