Coimbatore : There is bound to be an acute shortage of single super phosphate (SSP), a fertiliser for use in various crops, following short supply and increased price of sulphuric acid, a major raw input, says a leading manufacturer of the fertiliser in the city.

Small and mid-sized fertiliser manufacturing units started feeling the pinch of the non-availability of sulphuric acid after the shutdown of Sterlite copper in Tuticorin, which supplied the material at concessional prices, Coimbatore Pioneer Fertilizer managing director D Vidyaprakash told mediapersons here on Saturday.

Owing to short supply, the cost of good quality acid had gone up by 300 per cent, which affected the production of SSP, he said, adding that the acid available at RS 4,000 was more than Rs.9,000.

The industry was in a dire state, as many small and mid-sized ones were plagued by rising input costs, he said.

With a production of 40,000 tonnes per annum out of the 1.25 lakh tonnes in Tamil Nadu, the company had a commanding market share of 40 per cent in Tamil Nadu and 70 per cent in Kerala, he said.

Told that the company could increase the price of finished product, Vidyaprakash said that it needed State Government approval since the major supply was to the Tamil Nadu Marketing
Corporation and other farmer bodies.

The company has already written to the Government in this regard, he said. It had a stock for another 20 days, and bringing acid from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh or Northern States would double the cost.