Travancore Titanium Prod posts Rs 21 cr profit in FY'10

State-owned Travancore Titanium Products Ltd, which had been incurring losses for the past four years, has recorded a net profit of Rs 21.21 crore in the 2009-10 fiscal.

The total turnover of the company, which manufactures titanium dioxide pigment from ilmenite, was Rs 136.6 crore, Kerala Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem said.

Rise in price of sulphur and other raw materials in the last few years had resulted in high production cost leading to losses. The situation had changed with the fall in sulphur price, he told reporters here yesterday, while announcing the setting up of two pollution treatment plants for the company.

During FY'10, the company produced 15,273 tonnes of titanium dioxide. It also produced 4,050 tonnes of sulphuric acid, company officials said. The firm also exported its products during the period.

The plant had a total capacity of producing 45 tonnes per day of titanium dioxide white pigment. Its properties like high reflectance, high refractive index and optimum particle size distribution makes it a crucial ingredient of in paint, rubber, textiles, plastic, cosmetics and paper industries, they said.

The two pollution treatment plants -- neutralisation plant and copperas recovery plant -- would be set up with a total cost of Rs 76 crore. Both would be commissioned by June, the deadline given by the Kerala High Court to set up the plants, Kareem said.

With the commissioning of the pollution treatment plants, water discharge into the nearby sea would be free of any chemical contents.