The public sector Travancore Cochin Chemicals is headed to increasing its turnover and profit this financial year even as a proposal to increase the company’s caustic soda production capacity from the present 175 tonnes to 250 tonnes a day in the first phase is under the active consideration of the State government.
The proposed expansion is being planned without government funding and its first phase will involve an investment of around ₹50 crore. The company has also proposed raising the capacity from 250 tonnes to 350 tonnes per day in the second phase.
TCC, which was ailing, had made a “remarkable turnaround,” said Managing Director K. Harikumar, who earlier headed Central PSU Hindustan Insecticides and was honoured by the former Prime Minister for outstanding contributions to PSUs.
TCC had a total business turnover of over ₹200 crore during 2016-17 and the same business level has already been achieved by December this year for the current financial year. The company had registered a net profit of over ₹6 crore last financial year. When completed, the expansion of capacity will take the total turnover of the company to about ₹600 crore a year. Mr. Harikumar said that one of the reasons for the company’s performance had been the availability of electricity at competitive rates. TCC has been allowed open access to electricity and it has been engaged in buying power from outside Kerala at favourable rates. Whenever electricity was available outside at rates cheaper than what was available with the Kerala State Electricity Board, TCC had been accessing outside power, he said. About 33% of the company’s power requirement was bought from outside last month. TCC requires around 4.8 lakh units of electricity per day.
The company’s profitability has also been aided by full capacity utilisation and better marketing. TCC also ventured into export of caustic soda for the first time in its history this year. The installed capacity for caustic soda production is 57,750 tonnes and the level of production is around 61,000 tonnes. The derivatives include chlorine, hydrochloric acid as well as sodium chlorate, the latter being produced in a unit established in joint venture with Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
TCC also had plans for steam recovery from the hydrochloric acid plant, which would make the production process more efficient and cost-effective as furnace oil use would come down, said the TCC official. In the meanwhile, an external consultant has been engaged to study the market possibilities for hydrogen peroxide, derived from hydrogen produced in the process of making caustic soda. Hydrogen produced at the unit is used at present as fuel and value-addition will generate more business for the company.
TCC was set up in 1950 in the private sector by the promoters of Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited and caustic soda production commenced in 1954.
