FACT invites EoIs for new chemical plants

Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT), a public sector major in the field of fertiliser and petrochemical production, has called for expression of interest (EoI) from PSUs for joint venture companies for projects such as a new sulphuric acid plant, urea plant, NP complex fertilizer plant, SSP plant and ammonia-urea complex.

The sulphuric acid plant has been proposed at the Cochin division of the company. There is a deficit of 800 tonnes per day between production and consumption of sulphuric acid in Cochin division of FACT.

The proposed plant will have a capacity of 2,000 tpd and will entail an investment of around Rs 265 crore.

 

Production of urea in the Cochin division has been suspended since 2003 as the operations have become economically unviable.

However, a market survey indicates a demand-supply gap of at least 8 million tonnes by 2020. FACT alone requires about 300,000 tonne urea per annum to cater to southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

To meet this, the company has planned to set up a urea plant at the Udyogamandal division of a single train of 1,500 tpd. The new plant will be an add-on unit to the existing 900 tpd ammonia plant, which is based on Haldor Topsoe technology.

The capital investment for the plant and associated facilities has been estimated to be Rs 930 crore.

The company also proposes to set up a new integrated complex fertiliser production facility for manufacturing multiple NP grades at the Cochin division. It plans to increase the annual complex fertiliser production to 1 million tpa (tonnes per annum) by installing an additional 1,000 tpd NP plant using outsourced ammonia, phosphoric acid and sulphuric acid.

The estimated cost is Rs 220 crore. Besides, a 500 tpd capacity SSP plant at Udyogamandal has also been proposedat a cost of about Rs 60 crore.

FACT also intends to set up an ammonia-urea complex at the Cochin division as a part of its plans to revive urea production. The proposed complex will consist of an ammonia plant of capacity 2,000 tpd and a urea plant of 3,500 tpd. The cost of this venture is expected to be Rs 4,500 crore.

It will provide land and available infrastructure facilities like water to the JV as its share of the equity. It will also provide design and consultancy services through its design organisation FEDO, company sources said.

The company has invited expression of interest from builders, developers, architects and agents/dealers to assess their capability to be prequalified parties to design and construct dwellings using FACT-RCF Building Products Ltd (FRBL) building products or distribution of FRBL products.

FRBL is a joint venture of FACT and RCF for producing building products using gypsum.