Phillips Carbon Black to invest Rs 900 crore for capacity addition

Phillips Carbon Black Ltd, an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group Company, is planning to invest Rs 900 crore to set up a greenfield plant in Chennai and also to expand its two existing facilities at Mundra and Palej in Gujarat, a company official said on Friday.

"The 50,000 tonne capacity expansion at Mundra made steady progress during the year and is expected to be complete by third quarter of FY19 (2018-19).

"The 30,000 tonne capacity expansion at Palej is also under execution and is expected to be completed by first quarter of FY20 (2019-20). Combined estimated investment is Rs 400 crore," the statement said.

The carbon black maker also said it had started working on further expansion of capacity by setting up a greenfield plant of 150,000 tonnes per annum in Chennai and it is expected to be operational in September 2020.

"Total investments for the greenfield project along with capacity expansions at existing plants would be to the tune of Rs 900 crore," Group's Chairman Sanjiv Goenka told reporters here.

The company, having four plants, currently has a total capacity of 4.7 lakh tonnes and the same is expected to be 7 lakh tonnes after these expansions.

The company posted a 228 per cent growth in its standalone net profit to Rs 230 crore in the last fiscal on the back of demand growth in domestic and international markets. During the fourth quarter of the last fiscal, its net profit stood at Rs 74 crore.

According to Goenka, higher sales, increase in market shares, increased efficiency, higher focus on specialty black category and reduction in debt resulted in better performance.

In 2017-18, the company brought down its debt to Rs 770 crore from over Rs 1,200 crore and expects to bring it further down by 2020, he said.

The carbon black manufacturer has been moving up the value chain and expanding its product portfolio of high-performance high-margin grades for both rubber and specialty black applications, Goenka added.

--IANS

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