Units That Can Make Around 2,800 Oxygen Cylinders A Day Shut For The Past 10 Days

In another case of mismanagement and technical laxity, the Central government¡¯s order on 25 April putting a ban on the use of oxygen for non-medical industries has led to a halt for the manufacturing of oxygen cylinders in the largest units in Gandhidham, Gujarat.

The ban comes at a time when the entire country is witnessing a crippling shortage, which has cost hundreds of lives across India. The ban on industrial oxygen has had a significant fallout: over the past 10 days, production has come to a halt in the country¡¯s largest oxygen cylinder manufacturing units in the state of Gujarat.

BCCL

These cylinder-manufacturing units were included in the ban on use of industrial oxygen and despite a Ministry of Home Affairs ¡°clarification¡± on April 27 that liquid oxygen should be supplied to oxygen-cylinder manufacturers, the ban is yet to be lifted.

What's the matter?

Liquid oxygen is used in the making of seamless cylinders which are used to store medical oxygen. In industrial applications, liquid oxygen is used to create high temperatures to make the bottom and neck of cylinders. These cylinders later carry medical oxygen to hospitals.

Owing to the unprecedented surge in demand for the gas from hospitals, the centre banned the use of oxygen even for the cylinder manufacturing units. While the demand for oxygen shot up between 1200-1500 metric tonnes (MT), the collective requirement of these plants was only 11 MT a day. The move has now backfired.

BCCL

Representatives of the All India Industrial Gases Manufacturers Association (AIIGMA) said that the clutch of large units located in the Kandla Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Gandhidham, Kutch, account for over two-thirds of the country¡¯s oxygen cylinder production, and the continuing ban was only making the oxygen cylinder shortage more acute.

Speaking to The Indian Express, AIIGMA president Saket Tiku said: ¡°During the second wave of the Covid crisis, the demand of oxygen in the state of Gujarat has shot up between 1,200-1,500 MT a day. And the collective requirement of the cylinder plants in the state is minuscule in comparison. It is just 11 MT a day. This has been red-flagged at the highest level in Government but critical plants still remain shut.¡±

Reuters

How many cylinders could have been manufactured?

Kandla SEZ houses plants of two leading seamless cylinder kers, Everest Kanto Cylinder and Rama Cylinders. According to Sarang Gandhe, the Marketing Manager of Everest Kanto Cylinder Ltd, the largest cylinder manufacturer in the SEZ, the situation is ¡°desperate.¡±

¡°We have a production capacity of around 35,000 cylinders a month but are being forced to cancel orders,¡± he said. ¡°There are states like Orissa, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh that depend on us for cylinders but our plant is shuttered. The Government is now importing oxygen cylinders at three or four times our rates.¡±

BCCL

According to him, while the MHA issued instructions for exempting cylinder manufacturers from the ban, state authorities, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), were not executing these orders.

The owners of another large cylinder plant, Rama Cylinders Private Limited, said they have a production capacity of 50,000 oxygen cylinders a month and a ¡°technical delay¡± has tied their hands during an emergency. Said Managing Director Vashu Ramsinghani: ¡°We have large volume orders from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Union Health Ministry and from hospitals all over the country. We have made representations to the Chief Minister¡¯s Office and the situation is one of panic.¡±

This means a total of 85,000 cylinders could have been produced in a month which means 2,800 cylinders per day.

ET

Why is it worrying?

The manufacturers are a harried lot, saying they are getting ¡°hundreds of requests¡± for oxygen cylinders on a daily basis. Their existing orders from the Central Government, state governments and from hospitals nationwide are stuck.

One of the owner's son, Amit Ramsinghani, Executive Director, said: ¡°All we need is 3 MT of oxygen a day to run two cylinder plants. Hundreds of emails and frantic calls are coming but our plants are shut.¡±

Representational Image/Reuters

What was the order?

In the April 25 order, the Union Home Secretary said, "Use of liquid oxygen is not allowed for any non-medical purpose and all manufacturing units may maximise their production of liquid oxygen, and make it available to the government for use for medical purposes only, with immediate effect and until further orders."

The nine industries that were earlier exempted from supplying medical oxygen included oxygen cylinder manufacturers, among pharmaceutical, petroleum refineries and steel plants.