Madras Fertilizers Ltd

Madras Fertilizers Limited (MFL) was incorporated in December 1966 as Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), promoted by Govt. of India (GOI) and AMOCO India Inc. (Amoco - a Wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Oil Company of USA) holding 51% & 49% of shares respectively. MFL commenced commercial production in November 1971. In 1972 National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was inducted as shareholder acquiring 50% of AMOCO shareholding in MFL. In 1985 AMOCO has disinvested their MFL shares to GOI, NIOC & Public. Now GOI has holding 59.50%, NIOC has holding 25.77% & and Public has holding 14.73%. MFL is engaged in the manufacture of Ammonia, Urea and Complex Fertilizers at Manali, Chennai. It is also engaged in manufacturing Bio-fertilizers and trading eco-friendly Agro Chemicals, Organic Manure and City Compost under the brand name Vijay'. MFL is having enhanced installed capacity to produce 346500 MT of Ammonia, 486750 MT of Urea, 280,000 of NPK and 400 MT of Bio Fertilizers. The production of Ammonia is 252,140 MT and Neam-Urea is 432,500 MT as on March 31, 2024. MFL consists of production plants, Ammonia, Urea in single streams and NPK in three streams, viz. NPK A Train, B Train and C Train. Utilities Plant is the service plant supplying treated water, cooling water, off-site steam, instrument air, captive power and emergency power. MFL was one of the First Modern Fertilizer Plant Producing granulated Complex fertilizers in South India. In 1991, the old Chemico Converter of Ammonia Plant was replaced with the latest S 200 Radial Converter. In 1996 MFL was Accredited with ISO 9002, the first among the Public Sector Fertilizer Units. MFL implemented major Modernisation and Substantial Expansion of its plants. Due to delayed delivery of materials from Indian & Overseas Vendors. The project was deffered and it was completed in August 1997. The company entered in to capital Market through Public issue, The company issued 2,86,30,000 Equity Shares of Rs.10 each at a premium of Rs.5 per share. The company was putting up a Pilot Tissue culture Laboratory for producing 3 Million Plantlets. Subsequently the company dropped the Tissue Culture project and concentrated on its Core Business. In 2002, The Urea Prill Tower Modification by Monsanto Enviro-Chem Systems Inc., (MECSI) was taken up during the Scheduled in June 2001, but mechanical system was made ready on July 2001. MFL was Accredited with ISO 14001 certificiation for Environment Management System (EMS) by Indian Register Quality Systems (IRQS). The company has installing a Fluidized Bed Prill Cooling System, downstream of Prill Tower in order to achieve a Prill Temperature of 55-60 Deg Centigrade. The System was commissioned in August 2003. In 2004, The New Urea Pricing Policy implemented by GOI from April 2003 onwards, replacing the existing method of retention Pricing Scheme. Due to the impact of New Pricing scheme, MFL had to face pains of irrational Price Concession scheme in respect of Complex Fertilizers. The company faced major setback and MFLs networth was eroded. MFL became a sick Company. BRPSE (Board for reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises) reviewed the performance and had discussions with the company. BRPSE submitted their recommendations to GOI. During the year 2014-15, GOI dated Apr 02, 2014 directed to close down the Naphtha based Ammonia, Urea Plants from Jul 01, 2014. However, the units were permitted to run up to September 30, 2014. Subsequently, GOI on Jan 07, 2015 permitted to run Naphtha based Ammonia-Urea Plants for 100 days and hence in MFL Ammonia-Urea Plants, after shutdown for 3 months during Oct to Dec 2014, production was resumed during Jan 2015 and Urea Plant was run upto Apr 16, 2015. Process License and Basic Engineering from M/s Haldor Topsoe, Denmark for Ammonia Plant and from M/s Urea Technologies Inc., U.S.A for Urea Plant was adopted with modern Distributed Control System (DCS). The enhanced production capacities are 1050 MTPD for Ammonia (346500 MTPA) and 1475 MTPD for Urea (486750 MTPD). With respect to NPK, Pipe-reactor with Process License & Basic Engineering from M/s Grande Parroise, France was incorporated in NPK B Train. By this and along with higher on-stream efficiency, the installed capacity was raised to 2550 MTPD (840000 MTPD). Utility Boiler No 2 Burner Gas conversion completed and commissioned with RLNG as fuel on Oct 23, 2023. Sale of Anhydrous Ammonia was commenced and sold 544.6 MT to vendors thru Road Tankers. Plant has produced 432500 MT of Neem Coated Urea with a capacity Utilisation of 88.9% and with a Specific Energy Consumption of 7.612 Gcal/MT in FY 2024.