Dharani Sugars to put Rs 325 cr in new mill

Chennai-based Dharani Sugars and Chemicals Ltd is setting up a 5,000-tonne per day (tpd) sugar mill in Villupuram district of the state. The proposed investment would be around Rs 325 crore.

Speaking to Business Standard, Palani G Periasamy, chairman and managing director, said the new mill at Sankarapuram taluk would commence operations by June 2009. The funding would be through debt, equity and internal accruals.

Initially, the mill will have a 3,500 tpd capacity, apart from having a distiller unit and a 22Mw co-generation plant, said Periasamy.

The company already has sugar mills at Polur in Thiruvannamalai district and in Tirunelveli. The combined capacity of these two mills is 10,000 tonne per day besides having 37Mw co-generation power producing and 135 klpd of industrial alcohol capacity.

With the third mill, the capacity would go up to 11,500 tpd by the year end.

Meanwhile, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2008, as compared with a loss of Rs 8 crore. Commenting on the profit, he said improvement in the price of sugar helped the company report profit. However, this was still low in India at around Rs 20 a kg as compared with Rs 45 in the neighbouring countries, he added.