Jayshree Chemicals plans to invest Rs 150 crore

Jayshree Chemicals Limited, owned by the Karnataka-based SK Bangur Group, will invest around Rs 150 crore on expansion and modernisation of its caustic soda plant located near Ganjam in south Orissa.

The expansion programme is scheduled for commissioning by October 2010.

The investments include upgradation of the plant’s technology. It may be noted that the Centre has asked all the caustic soda producers in the country to adopt membrane technology by the end of 2012.

While about 90 per cent of the caustic soda producing plants have adopted the technology, Jayshree Chemicals, the only caustic soda producing plant in Orissa is yet to adopt it.

There are 38 plants across the country producing caustic soda, which is used as an input for the alumina and paper industries.

"We have already started the engineering works of the proposed expansion plan and field work will commence from September this year", said RS Choudhury, president of the company’s caustic soda plant.

Under the expansion plan, the production capacity of the plant would be scaled up from 70 tonnes per day to 152 tonnes per day.

Besides, the adoption of new technology would help reduce energy consumption.

"Our energy consumption will reduce drastically after the adoption of the new technology", Choudhury told Business Standard.

He said the company has already negotiated with the public sector banks like State Bank of India (SBI), State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur as well as the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) for raising the funds

The company proposed to fund its expansion plans through long-term borrowings (LTB) from these nationalized banks and also from internal accruals.

However, the detailed plan of raising funds for the project is yet to be finalized.