The shutdown of Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers or MCF units is expected to have an impact on the availability of fertilizers in the Southern state of Karnataka.
The fertilizer company has closed its ammonia, urea & ammonium bi-carbonate (ABC) plants from 14th of May since the Mangalore City Corporation has cut down the water supply to the MCF plant after the depletion of water level at Thumbe vented dam close to Mangaluru.
Sources in the company informed BusinessLine that the Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers cannot restart production till monsoon arrives in the state.
The Centre has already been told about the matter. Affirming that a major part of MCF’s fertilizers is sold in Karnataka state, sources told that ‘Mangala Urea’ is the chosen brand among cultivators in the State. The company produces approximately 1,300 tonnes of ‘Mangala Urea’ per day. Taking into consideration the delayed arrival of monsoon as predicted by the Meteorological department & private weather predictors, there may not be fertilizer production for next 20-25 days.
It must be noted that the Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers gets water from Thumbe vented dam near Mangaluru. The water requirement of the MCF compound is around 1.6 million gallons per day (MGD). As per sources, MCF was receiving around 2 MGD of water from the reservoir previously.
The company decreased the consumption to nearly 1.6 MGD after initiating numerous water conservation measures.
Informing about the shutdown to the stock exchanges, the company in a statement said, “Owing to depletion of reservoir level at Thumbe vented dam that supplies water to Mangalore city, including to the company & the delayed pre-monsoon rain, the district administration or Mangalore City Corporation has cut the supply of water from 14th May 2019. As the water storage level has reached the dead stock level, the firm has taken shut down of Ammonia, Urea and ABC plants with effect from 14 May. The production will start again once the water is available.”
