Goa Carbon announces Rs 700 crore capex plan

Goa Carbon (GCL), the country’s largest manufacturer of calcined petroleum coke (CPC), has chalked out Rs 700 capital expenditure plan to set up greenfield and brownfield expansion in CPC and power.

The company is in the process of setting up a CPC plant in east coast with a capacity between 3.5-5.0 lakh tonnes at an investment of Rs 500 crore. Although, the location for this plant is not yet finalised, the preferred location would be Dhamra in Orissa or Gujarat from where exports of CPC would be convenient through nearby ports.

Another Rs 100 crore has been allocated to enhance the capacity from the existing 1.5 lakh tonnes to 2.5 lakh tonnes at its existing Paradip plant in Orissa. A sum of Rs 100 has been allocated to generate 18 MW of power of which 11 MW has been scheduled at Paradip. The plant in Bilaspur is proposed to generated 5 MW of electricity.

 

“Our discussion with respective state grids is in advanced stages. We are also in discussion with the power regulator. After obtaining various permissions from the respective bodies, the construction work on the plant would commence,” said Shrinivas V Dempo, chairman, Goa Carbon Ltd.

Currently, the company is producing 2.4 lakh tonnes of CPC in its three locations each existing very close to aluminium smelters.
Its plant in Paradip supplies CPC to the public sector National Aluminium Company (Nalco) while the Bilaspur plant supplies petroleum coke to Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco).

“Becasue of rising freight cost, the import of raw petroleum coke (the raw material for CPC), has become costlier. Therefore, we are evaluating options to set up conversion units in Middle East where CPC demand is growing leaps and bounds,” Dempo said.

V Shrinivas Dempo, the 100 per cent family owned mining arm of the Dempo group, is also planning to set up a one million tonne of alloy and specialised steel plant in Jharkhand at an investment of Rs 2000 crore. The company signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Jharkhand in 2006 for the plant and applied for two mining leases. But, because of unclear rehabilitation policies, the plant hangs in balance for the last two years.

It has already acquired 50 acres of land near Mohanpur. But, further acquisition of land and other activities would begin only after the announcement of government’s rehabilitation policies, scheduled next fortnight of this month.

Currently, the company owns 19 leases and mining 4 million tonnes of iron ore annually. Dempo Group is planning to divest 30-40 per cent equity in iron ore mining business through private placement of shares.

GCL reported a sales turnover of Rs 120.09 crore (Rs 51.59 crore) bottomline of Rs 11.63 crore (Rs 1.49 crore) for the quarter ended June 30, 2008. India produces and consumes about 0.5 million tonnes of CPC annually.