Pollution control board issues closure order to Deepak Nitrite's unit in Hyderabad

Deepak Nitrite Ltd (DNL), the Vadodara-based manufacturer of organic, inorganic and fine chemicals, has received an order from the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) for closure of one of its three manufacturing units situated at Hyderabad.

Deepak Nitrite manufactures DASDA (diamino stilbene disulfonic acid), a chemical used in the manufacturing of optical brightening agents (OBA), at its Hyderabad facility and the unit, for which order has been received, is a processing unit. The company’s DASDA production will be affected due to the TSPCB’s order.

The company said that it is taking all the necessary effective steps to correct the anomalies pointed out by the TSPCB authorities in the manufacturing system in the said unit at Hyderabad facility. “Very best efforts are being put to get the closure notice revoked within a week or so. There will not be any major impact on service to DASDA customers. The week long interruption in production will not have any major impact on the optical brightening agents production also, as adequate inventories are available,” said Deepak Nitrite in a BSE filing yesterday.

DASDA is used in the production of optical brightening agents (OBAs), which are used widely by the manufacturers of paper, textile and detergent. DASDA has been in short supply as key production units were closed for environmental reasons in China, which is the leading producer of this chemical in the world.

Deepak Nitrite is the only fully-integrated manufacturer of fluorescent whitening agent (FWA), commonly known as optical brightening agents, in India having vertical integration from toluene to para-nitrotoluene (PNT) and further into DASDA and OBA. Fluorescent whitening agents recorded revenues of Rs 274 crore in FY 2015-16, accounting for about 20 percent of DNL’s total revenues.