Asahi Songwon in pact with Japanese firm

Gujarat-based Asahi Songwon Colors Limited (ASCL), the leading Indian manufacturer of pigments has signed a purchase agreement with Dainippon Ink & Chemicals, Inc (DIC), a Tokyo-based ink manufacturing company.

DIC has its principal office in Tokyo and operations in over 60 countries, and 230 subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide, is a global corporation with an annual turnover of over Rs 41,000 crore and over 27,000 employees worldwide.

The agreement was signed by Paru Jaykrishna, Chairperson and MD of ASCL and Kouji Oe, President, DIC in Tokyo on April 17 in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and largest DIC share holder Yoshihisa Kawamura.

"This development will further boost ASCL's marketing strength which at present operates its CPC Blue Crude Plant at 100 per cent capacity." said Gokul Jaykrishna, Executive Director, ASCL.

To meet the increased demand, ASCL has begun work on increasing its CPC Blue Crude manufacturing capacity to 10,800 MT per annum at its Vadodara location.

ASCL also plans to set up a Beta Blue manufacturing facility with 1,200 MT per annum and to set up a 2 Mw captive power plant. The total cost of the above projects has been estimated to the tune of Rs 52 crore.

State Bank of India has already sanctioned a term loan of Rs 8 crore towards the part finance of the project cost. The ASCL proposes to raise the balance Rs 44 crore by entering capital markets with an IPO in which DIC is likely to take equity stake.