AkzoNobel and Atul have announced their intention to jointly invest in the production of Monochloroacetic acid (MCA) in India. This will include setting up a world class MCA plant at the first manufacturing site of Atul located in Valsad (Gujarat). Each partner will hold a 50 percent stake.
This partnership will build on the status that Atul has as a leading global supplier of 2,4-D, a herbicide that uses MCA as a key raw material, and the leading global position that AkzoNobel has in the MCA market, with plants in the Netherlands, China, Japan and the USA. MCA is an essential building block in the chemical industry and is used in a wide variety of chemicals.
The partnership will use Chlorine and Hydrogen manufactured by Atul to produce MCA, taking advantage of the existing infrastructure that Atul has and the leading eco-friendly hydrogenation technology supplied by AkzoNobel. The plant will produce enough MCA to meet the captive requirement of Atul; AkzoNobel will market the rest of it, primarily in India.