Sales of polyol hit by COVID-19, revival to take time: MPL

For MPL, the demand for pharmaceuticals, food grade propylene glycol has not been affected, but revival of sale of polyol and other products to full scale could take more time, chairman of the company Ashwin C Muthiah said. This was because the end-use industries are yet to reach normal production-levels, he said while addressing shareholders at the 34th annual general meeting.

Chennai, Sep 16 (PTI): Manali Petrochemicals Ltd (MPL) has been monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on the company particularly its sale of polyol which could take time to reach pre-coronavirus production level, a top company official said on Wednesday. For MPL, the demand for pharmaceuticals, food grade propylene glycol has not been affected, but revival of sale of polyol and other products to full scale could take more time, chairman of the company Ashwin C Muthiah said.

This was because the end-use industries are yet to reach normal production-levels, he said while addressing shareholders at the 34th annual general meeting. On the COVID-19 outbreak, he said the operations at its facilities had to be totally stopped in the last week of March. Later, operations recommenced in phases from the first week of April, he said.

Initially, production of propylene glycol began as it is an input for essential industries such as pharmaceutical and food, he said. However, it took more than 50 days to restart manufacturing of major products, he said.

"With most of the end-use industries for polyol and related products remaining closed or operating at low levels, the off-take was low. For the first time in 16 years, the company recorded a quarterly loss," he said. Efforts to enhance customer-centric approach towards product customisation and to upgrade safety and environmental standards for the betterment of the community at large would continue, he said.