Coromandel SQM, a joint venture between Coromandel International and SQM, has announced that its water soluble fertilizer plant at Kakinada will go on stream shortly to produce 15,000 tonnes per annum.
Announcing this at a press conference here on Wednesday, Coromandel International's Managing Director Kapil Mehan and Lead Director V. Ravichandran, said the plant could produce all Fertiliser Control Order (FCO) NPK (nitrogen phosphorous potassium) grades and customised grades. The main users of these fertilizers would be vegetable, fruit, cotton, sugarcane and chilli growers.
At present, the demand for water-soluble fertilizers in the country was 70,000 tonnes per annum. They said the Kakinada plant capacity could be expanded to 25,000-30,000 tonnes as the demand increased. In the first two years, they would concentrate on the Indian market and later explore export possibilities. They said that the use of these fertilizers would increase the yields substantially and require lesser labour, power and water requirements.
Frank Biot, Commercial (Vice-President), SQM, said the company also planned to launch crop-specific blended speciality products to suit Indian agro-climatic conditions in the next three to five months. Replying to queries, Mr. Mehan said Coromandel would not further increase the prices this fiscal for its fertilizers.
