India Inc is coming together to ramp up Oxygen capacity and strengthen its supply chain
With the unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases and acute shortage of medical oxygen pushing the hospitals in the country to the edge, India Inc is lending a helping hand to strengthen the fight against the pandemic as it steps up the supply chain and augments the availability of medical oxygen in different parts of the country.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has formed a Task Force on Oxygen Supply Chain to work with Central and State Governments to augment oxygen supply by working on domestic capacity enhancement and imports; logistical issues between States including issues of transportation, non-availability of cylinders; policy-level interventions.
Companies including the Tata Group, Reliance Industries NSE 2.24 % , JSW Group, Adani NSE 2.08 %, ITC, and Jindal Steel and Power, to name a few, have come forward to help hospitals treating Covid-19 patients by supplying medical oxygen, cryogenic vessels, portable concentrators, and generators.
Commenting on the situation, T V Narendran, President Designate, CII said, “There is a dire need to increase the availability of oxygen and address the logistical issues in transporting oxygen across the country. The biggest bottleneck is the shortage of cryogenic containers. Tatas are importing 36 cryogenic vessels by this month end. Tata Steel is also supplying over 600 MT medical oxygen from its plants to hospitals”.
JSW Steel is also currently supplying 1000 tonnes per day and plans to ramp up further. The total supply from all its plants across the country viz Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in April 2021 is expected to be over 20000 tonnes of liquid oxygen.