Century prepones Punjab plant launch; close Nesta stores

Century Plyboards today said it has decided to prepone commencement of Rs 390-crore medium density fibreboard (MDF) plant at Hoshiarpur in Punjab to March next year after a request from the state government.
"The MDF plant was earlier planned in June 2017 but with request from Punjab Chief Minister, we had preponed the plan to March next," Century Ply Chairman Sajjan Bhajanka said.
Recent imposition of anti-dumping duty on MDF imports also prompted the company to begin work on the plant early.
"Anti-dumping duty of about 25 per cent makes import unviable," Bhajanka said, adding the company has backed out from a JV in Laos for manufacturing MDF.

Century has proposed to have a plyboard facility in the MDF plant but a lot would depend on GST rollout which could lead to a spurt in demand.
"If GST is rolled out as planned, we would also require more capacity and we have plans to add 1.5 lakh sq metres of plyboard facility at Hoshiarpur," he said.

Century has almost two lakh sq metres of plyboard capacity and is currently operating at around 80 per cent capacity.
Meanwhile, unable to succeed in its furniture retail venture 'Nesta', Century has decided to close all nine stores within the current fiscal.

Century MD and CEO Sanjay Agarwal said, "We will retain the Nesta brand and try something in furniture segment from our plyboards like do-it-yourself in the near future.