Aarti Industries has commissioned and commercialised the initial phase of its upcoming unit at Dahej SEZ, Gujarat in Q4/FY20 and had also exported a few shipments to its global customers.
Also, the company’s fourth research and development (R&D) centre located at Navi Mumbai was also made operational in March 2020.
The centre will facilitate further enhancement of the product portfolio and also augment the reaction capabilities in other niche speciality chemical segments.
Based on the company’s R&D initiatives, the company is looking to expand its portfolio into chloro-toluene products and additional downstream chemistries such as photo-chlorination, among others. With the enhancement of R&D capabilities, it expects to enter additional new lines of chemistry and products.
The focus will be on supply chains for value-added products requiring multiple levels of synthesis and completely independent of intermediate supplies from China.
The company’s product profile includes key ingredients for various pharma/agrochemical intermediates, which are included in essential goods.The company had thus applied and was granted permissions to operate its chemical manufacturing facilities and enable movement of critical workforce, materials, etc.
After securing the supply chain, logistics and mandatory compliance requirements, the company has resumed operations at all of its manufacturing units since the first half of April 2020. The units are currently operating at about 50-80 percent capacity utilisation.
All key standard operating procedures (SOPs) for safety and health of employees and workers are being strictly followed to create a work ecosystem based on social distancing norms, sanitised facilities and restrictions on the movement of people as prescribed by local authorities.
The company's other establishments, including offices at Mumbai and Vadodara as well as R&D units, are temporarily closed and work-from-home has been facilitated for all employees.