Gujarat NRE committed to India plans despite slowdown

Gujarat NRE Coke, the country's largest coke producer, will remain committed towards its Rs 3,000 crore investment plans in India over the next four years, even though the company said its business is likely to slowdown in the short term.

"Due to the heavy volatility in the coke prices, we see a slowdown in the short term but we have always grown in the down cycle and we remain committed to our multi-billion rupees investment over a period of next four years," Gujarat NRE Coke Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Arun Kumar Jagatramka told PTI.

Coke prices were ruling high globally at about $700 a tonne level earlier this year. The rates have come down in the second quarter to around $500 per tonne, amid the slum in demand in the international market.

"The fluctuations in prices will remain their for a while. We own coking coal blocks in Australia, it give us some protection against this price volatility," he added.

Jagatramka said the firm is expecting a turnover of $1 billion by 2012-13 from the Australian coal mines with production going up to 6.5 million tonne in four years from the present about a million tonne per annum.

He added that the company's order book is full up till December, while about 40 per cent of the sales are secured for the January-May 2009 period.

The firm is investing about Rs 350 crore in setting up a processing unit in Andhra Pradesh, to be operational in next 27 months.

It would pump in about Rs 80 crore in expanding the capacity of its Gujarat plants in next two years, thus taking the overall production of the firm to 2.5 million tonne annually from present 1.25 million tonne.