Nagarjuna Fert mulls overseas ventures

Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (NFCL) has long-term plans to set up ventures abroad as well as to increase the capacity of its urea plant here.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, K S Raju, chairman and managing director of the company, said NFCL was currently supplying half of the state's annual requirement of two million tonnes of urea.

At present, the capacity of the plant here is 12-13 lakh tonnes per year. "It could be increased in future, subject to the availability of natural gas. We are in negotiations with Reliance, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) and the ONGC for the additional gas," he added.

He informed that the NFCL was also importing urea and was currently marketing 1.9 million tonnes, including imports.

"We want to retain our market share. If there is enough feedstock and government policies are helpful, we will increase our capacity or we will meet the requirement with imports,'' he said.

On whether the group plans to set up a fertiliser plant in Nigeria, he said, "we are exploring the possibility of setting up units abroad. But the project is still in its preliminary stage."

Answering a question about the proposed bio-diesel plant, Raju said the group was working in a different way and trying to develop genetically engineered plants for producing bio-diesel. He, however, said it would take a long time.

Raju said NFCL was manufacturing 8 technicals and 15 formulations with a turnover of Rs 400 crore. The company was also the first to introduce the concept of water soluble fertilisers in India in 1995 through a tie-up with Haifa Chemicals, Israel, and was the market leader in India with sales of about 8,000 metric tonnes per year.

On Friday, NFCL will felicitate 27 progressive farmers, including five women, who were trained in Krishi Vijnana Kendra, run by the company here. Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is scheduled to take part in the programme.