Nalco plans caustic soda plant at Paradip to counter soaring costs

Visibly worried over soaring costs of inputs, National Aluminium Company (Nalco) is contemplating a second caustic soda plant within the planned PCPIR (petroleum, chemicals & petrochemicals investment region) hub at Paradip.

Nalco already has a joint venture with Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals Ltd, a Gujarat government company, to set up a caustic soda plant at Dahej with a cost of Rs 1800 crore. The caustic soda projects would cocoon Nalco from volatile caustic soda prices, said T K Chand, the company's chairman and managing director.

"At Nalco, we felt we should have our captive caustic soda production. Our caustic soda plant in