The prospects of Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore getting cheap LNG looks bleak with the latest negotiations centred around the possible price of $14.5 per MMBTU. The chairman and managing director of the public sector fertilizer company Jaiveer Sreevastava, who took charge last month, told reporters here on Thursday that the company had sought extension of naphtha subsidy support up to March 31, 21014. He, however, said the expected price of LNG looked slightly better than naphtha.
Company sources said FACT had pinned hopes on cheaper LNG to make a turnaround as it has already completed conversion work. We are ready to switch to LNG any time now, said Mr. Srivatsava.
The company needs an estimated 0.32 million tonnes of LNG a year and FACT is the single largest consumer for the five-million-tonne LNG terminal being commissioned here later this year by Petronet LNG Limited.
The FACT CMD said a Vision 2020 for the company envisaged achieving a total business turnover of Rs. 7,000 crore and a profit after tax of Rs. 300 crore. He hopes to achieve these targets by unleashing its land bank and encouraging other companies, even private ones, to invest in projects on FACT land.
He said that achieving Vision 2020 goals required massive investments. For example, the proposed Ammonia-Urea complex requires an investment of Rs. 4700 crore. If anyone comes forward with these investments, FACT is looking to use its land bank as a partner.
Unleashing the potential of engineering and design company FEDO, a subsidiary of FACT is another opportunity Mr. Srivatsava sees on the horizon. He said FACT management was open to turning FEDO into a profit centre in collaboration with entities like Engineers India Limited or other such competent bodies.
Converting the FACT guest house at Ambalamedu into a convention centre and using the potential of the joint venture FACT-FRBL, which is currently making reinforced gypsum boards, are other projects drawn up in Vision 2020.
