There are many ways to make VCM and PVC and the people in the vinyl industry know that well. But the way TCI Sanmar Chemicals makes them in Port Said, Egypt has no parallel. It all started in 2007 with The Sanmar Group acquiring Trust Chemicals Industry, Port Said, Egypt, operating a Chlor-alkali plant and deciding to establish the complete vinyl chain. Plans were made to set up a fully integrated world class production facility with the following capacities:
Caustic Soda | 275 KTA. |
EDC | 280 KTA. |
VCM | 400 KTA |
S-PVC | 400 KTA (initially 200 KTA but revised in 2010 to 400 KTA) |
Alcoethylene | 85 KTA (decided in 2010). |
[Plus all the necessary utilities and generation facilities including oxygen and nitrogen].
After spending nearly 900 million US dollars, a part of the integrated facility was started in December 2010. But then the Egyptian Revolution in January 2011 caused the stoppage of all activities. The facility suffered damage to certain parts of the plant from criminal acts of vandalism and pilferage. After setting right the damaged plant and putting in new equipment, production resumed in November 2011, and the plant is fully operational now. Marketing of PVC to the Egyptian market started in January 2012. Since ethylene manufacture is yet to start, EDC is purchased from international sources and used to make VCM and PVC. Construction of the alco-ethylene production facility commenced in March 2012. Caustic soda and chlorine production and marketing to both the Egyptian and export markets have been positive from 2007 to now.
TCI Sanmar factfile |
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600 direct employees (550 Egyptian and 50 Expat Indians) 4 00 indirect and contract (construction) employees Salaries and wages among top 5 companies in Egypt Sanmar’s investment i n TCI Sanmar - single largest private investment into Egypt a mong all global investors. |
N Sankar with the senior management team during his visit to TCI Sanmar in March 2010.
N Sankar presenting Long Service Award to R Kalidas.
R Kalidas, Vice Chairman & Managing Director - TCI Sanmar Chemicals SAE, Egypt, has completed 47 years of association with the Group. Even during the 17 years in between (1989-2004) when he was not employed by the Group, he was in constant touch, giving advice and suggestions. In fact, the acquisition of TCI Chemicals by Sanmar and the birth of TCI Sanmar Chemicals emerged out of one such suggestion by Kalidas.
Kalidas can truly be called ‘Mr PVC’. The prospect of finding people in the world with as many years of continuous experience in PVC manufacturing—almost fifty—as he has must indeed be remote. He has been one of the most dedicated and committed employees of the Group
One of the stalwarts of the Group, Kalidas is a chemical engineer by qualification–with a masters degree in the discipline–who has worn varied hats in his long and distinguished career with Sanmar.
Joining the Group on 1 April 1964, Kalidas was the first employee of what was then the greenfield project of Chemicals and Plastics to manufacture PVC at Mettur. In fact, he joined the corporate office at Madras even during the initial phase of finalising the licensing, joint venture agreement and other commercial/ administrative formalities in connection with the partnership with BF Goodrich of the USA, before moving on to Mettur to plunge into all the plant activities there. In this period, he worked very closely with S Ramaswamy, who was appointed General Manager of the project.
Kalidas completed his Masters in Chemical Engineering at AC College of Technology. “I knew N Sankar from our college days. He was my junior, and I came into contact with him when I was a PG student and demonstrator at AC Tech, as also on the tennis court.”
When Kalidas applied for a position in Chemplast, he was interviewed by Director KS Narayanan and General Manager S Ramaswamy, who later mentored Sankar. Ramaswamy provided valuable guidance and “put me on the right path”.
Once the plant was commissioned and he moved to Mettur, Kalidas devoted himself completely to plant activities. It was the peak of the licence raj, which demanded frequent visits to New Delhi for a variety of approvals. KSN and Ramaswamy were both encouraging. Both expected work to be done quickly. He also had opportunities to interact with TS Narayanaswami, the Managing Director of India Cements.
The challenges were many. The PVC industry in India was in the initial stages and the manufacture of the feedstock, ethylene from alcohol was unfamiliar territory.
Kalidas served Chemplast for 25 years in his first stint before moving to the Gulf, where he spent the next 15 years. Coming back to Sanmar in 2004, he remains extremely youthful in his approach to work, even at the age of 72.
One of the first challenges NS posed Kalidas at Mettur was the increase in PVC capacity from the initial 6600 tpa to 15000 tpa. Kalidas realised from his earlier experience at Badger (who
supplied distillation columns, reactors and heat exchangers for BF Goodrich) that the plant had been designed for a capacity as high as 15000 tpa. He knew that part of the distillation column had been blanked and that if it was completely activated by removing the blanks, the desired capacity could be achieved. Seeing the logic in this idea, NS gave him the go-ahead and the enhancement in capacity was achieved. But NS was not satisfi ed. He wanted to exploit the extra capacity built in for safety by the engineers, and that too was achieved, to reach a capacity of 16300 tpa. “Later we introduced the new technologies microsuspension and emulsion PVC.”
Kalidas was involved in the backward integration initiative of acquiring Mettur Chemicals. In charge of the project, N Sankar spent long periods at Mettur, at least twice a month. Kalidas also did sales and promotional work in addition to his responsibilities at the plant.
Kalidas’s training in alcohol dehydration at the facility of the American collaborator BF Goodrich was a rich experience, providing exposure to alcohol reactor design. The acquisition of an alcohol distillery at Kattampuliyur and starting a greenfi eld alcohol distillery project were the next backward integration efforts in which Kalidas was involved. He considers all these initiatives of N Sankar as of paramount significance in the Chemplast growth story.
Until his marriage in 1972, Kalidas worked and lived at Mettur for almost eight years.
“When I left India in 1989 to work for Sabic in Saudi Arabia after 25 years in Sanmar, I promised NS that I would return in three or four years. I stayed on for 15 years, but I kept my promise to come back to Sanmar,” Kalidas told us. “I rejoined Sanmar at the age of 67. TCI Sanmar is one of the fi nest backward-integrated PVC plants in the world. It was a great moment when production of VCM started. Today, the PVC industry is showing a healthy trend. The alco-ethylene project should be ready in about 19 months.
On the work front, Kalidas’s greatest interaction has been with NS. “Vijay Sankar is an excellent successor, a very patient person. I have known him from his early days. I hope he will take the Group forward to newer heights and to greater glory. I have known four generations of the family starting from KSN’s father Sankaralinga Iyer. It’s been an honour and privilege to work with all of them, each of whom has brought his own expertise to business.”
Vijay Sankar with R Kalidas during his visit to Port Said in March 2012.