Phillips Carbon Black lines up Rs 1,300-1,400 crore capex by FY23

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group firm Phillips Carbon Black Ltd (PCBL) to pump about Rs 1,300-1,400 crore over the next two years on capacity expansion, a top company official said.

The expansion lined up is one Rs 800 crore greenfield plant near Chennai and brownfield expansion in Mundra for specialty carbon that would entail an investment of Rs 300-350 crore. The carbon major will pump Rs 100 crore in research and development facilities in Belgium and India, he said.

"Keeping the group's vision under Sanjiv Goenka to become a top global carbon black player, the company is ramping up capacity and total investment in two years will work to be around Rs 1,400 crore and of which about Rs 1,200 crore will be directed at greenfield plant in Tamil Nadu and brownfield expansion in specialty carbon at Mundra. Rest of the amount will be infused for R&D and maintenance capex of existing plants," PCBL managing director Kaushik Roy told PTI when asked if Covid impacted expansion.

PCBL now produces around 6,00,000 tonnes of carbon black annually from four strategically located state-of-the-art plants at Durgapur (West Bengal), Palej (Gujarat), Mundra (Gujarat) and Kochi (Kerala), it has also set up R&D centres at Palej (Gujarat) and Ghislenghien (Belgium).

The greenfield project will be of 1,50,000 tonnes per annum for manufacturing of various grades of carbon black and green power plant, spread over 60 acres of land in Tamil Nadu. The project is in progress and is likely to be commissioned by Q3 FY23.

The Mundra specialty carbon expansion will have an additional capacity of 40,000 tonne per annum.

"Despite a strong internal accruals there will be a gap of about Rs 500 crore for the capex due to high 30 per cent dividend policy to reward the shareholders. The company is deliberating on the options on raising resources. It can be equity, debt or in combination," officials said.

The company will seek shareholders nod to raise up to Rs 500 crore.

PCBL is optimistic about demand growth both in the domestic and overseas market. PCBL exports to some 40 countries.