Phillips Carbon Black Ltd (PCBL), an R. P. Goenka group company, is planning to set up a fresh capacity of 50,000 tonnes. This is set to be the company's fifth unit, taking its capacity to 4.6 lakh tonnes.
Indications were that the southern region was emerging as a strong contender for locating this unit. “We are looking at some locations and this will be decided by early-June,” Chairman Sanjiv Goenka said at a press meet after the company's board meeting. He said that a preferred destination would be proximity to a port as well as the user-industry. Around 40 acres would be required. A brownfield project is also an option but indications were that the promoters preferred a greenfield project.
The company has reported its highest-ever post-tax profit of Rs. 122.69 crore for 2009-10.
The directors at their meeting on Wednesday recommended a 40 per cent dividend and a golden jubilee dividend of 10 per cent. Mr. Goenka said that PCBL had finalised a capital expenditure of Rs. 350 crore by 2012-13 for setting up the new plant along with an 8 MW power plant (entailing an investment of Rs. 200 crore), a 50,000 tonnes expansion at the Mundra unit in Gujarat along with an 8 MW power plant and a new 10 MW power plant in Kochi where the company also had a unit. The company's two other units are located in Durgapur (West Bengal) and Palej (Gujarat).
These brownfield expansions will take PCBL's carbon black production capacity from 3.6 lakh tonnes now to 4.1 lakh tonnes, pushing up its global position by a notch to No. 7. Its power generating capacity would also increase during this expansion to 76 MW.
Referring to the upcoming unit in Vietnam, he said that land acquisition for the project was underway and some clearances were also awaited. PCBL is setting up Vietnam's first carbon black plant through a joint venture. The first phase entails a capacity of 60,000 tonnes with a co-generation plant of 12 MW involving an outlay of $63 million.
