RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group plans Rs 200 crore infusion in PCBL

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group owned Phillips Carbon Black (PCBL) has earmarked Rs 200 crore for the current fiscal year to carry on debottlenecking of its twin plants in Palej and Mundra in Gujarat as well as ramp up its capacity from the existing 0.47 mt to 0.51 mt.

However, the group's chairman, Sanjiv Goenka did not mention the timeframe of this investment.

The company, while setting up these plants six years back had incurred an estimated Rs 350 crore capital expenditure of Rs 350 crore.

The company which was under stress of nearly Rs 900 crore loan has been trying to bring down its finance costs and was able to decrease its by 42.8% in the six months ended September 30, 2016.

Goenka projected the debt burden has decreased by nearly Rs 200 crore till the second quarter of the current fiscal year.

The company is now focussing on increasing its revenue from specialty blacks and aims to take its volume share to the consolidated volume to 20% from the current 10%.

"Eventually, our target is that specialty black should contribute one third of the total volume", Goenka said.

On the phase of consolidation of operations, Goenka is conscious about further investing in PCBL.

It has also put on hold its plan of starting Vietnam operations which it had envisaged way back in 2007.

PCBL, the world's seventh largest carbon black producer, has a 80:20 joint venture with The Southern Rubber Industry Joint Stock Company, Danang Rubber Joint Stock Company and Sao Vang Rubber Joint Stock Company of Vietnam to set up a 50,000 tonne carbon black production facility in Vietnam, which incidentally was supposed to be the first carbon black plant in that country.

Set up in collaboration with a US based Phillips Petroleum, PCBL started production in 1962 with 14,000 metric tonnes of carbon black at Durgapur. Currently, it has a production capacity of 4,72,000 tonne per annum in India, and involves a dedicated capacity of Specialty Blacks of 40,000 tonne per annum at Palej.

During the July-September fiscal period, the company posted an increase of 271% in its net profit at Rs 15.2 crore even though the topline declined by 10%.