CHANDIGARH: Punjab Cabinet Sub-Committee on Disinvestment has approved the pre-qualification of bidders for off-loading PSIDC’s stake in Punjab Alkalies & Chemicals Limited. “The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Disinvestment has approved the pre-qualification of bidders for the disinvestment in Punjab Alkalies & Chemicals Limited (PACL),” a senior official said here today. The committee has now asked IFCI Limited for inviting the financial bids from pre-qualified bidders,” he said, adding that global advisors have been asked to invite the financial bids from the pre-qualified bidders. Expression of Interests were earlier called for selling Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation’s (PSIDC) stake in PACL. PSIDC has 44.26 per cent stake in PACL with 90.90 lakh equity shares. Besides PSIDC, other stakeholders in PACL are public, corporate bodies, mutual funds and banks with 55.74 per cent stake. Earlier also, the Punjab government had d...

There is little doubt that the Chinese government’s zero-covid measures will significantly affect its industrial sector’s ability to meet the relatively low 5.5% GDP economic growth target set earlier this year. Production downturns and stoppages in epoxy resin, chlor-alkali, vinyls, PET resins, UPR as well as caustic soda and acetyls chemical subsectors are are being reported by our consultants both within China and globally.  Our previous blog, Shanghai chemicals logistics disrupted, north ports pick up business outlined the issues at Shanghai ports and the difficulty of getting product in and out of facilities within the municipality.  Fears over the erosion of demand from the world’s largest commodity consumer have already dragged down metals prices, according to this Wall Street Journal report. Meanwhile, a survey from the joint state and industry-owned agency Business Sweden shows the measures have negatively affected short-, mid-, and long-term outlooks for Swedish bus...