Paradeep Phosphates (PPL), the erstwhile PSU now taken over by the KK Birla Group, plans to ramp up the capacity of its DAP (di-ammonia phosphate) plant at Paradip in Orissa from 7.2 lakh tonne per annum to 2 million tonne with an investment of Rs 400 crore.
?The expansion plan is now on the drawing board,? said PPL managing director SS Nandurdikar. He said the capacity expansion programme would be taken up in a phased manner over a period of three years. The capacity of the phosphoric acid plant and the sulphuric acid plant will be enhanced first, he added.
Though the Paradip plant’s capacity is 7 lakh tonne per annum of DAP, PPL is currently producing 11 lakh tonne per annum on an average.
Similarly, the production from the acid plant is about a million tonne though the total capacity is 8.8 lakh tonne per annum.
Following the takeover of the plant on 2002, KK Birla Group has put in Rs 120 crore as an additional equity so as to invest in refurbishing, de-bottlenecking and capacity expansion.
The managing director said the company would go ahead with the expansion despite the fact that the current year would be a difficult year for the fertilizer industry. ?The global economic recession and the delayed monsoon are likely to adversely affect the business of fertilizer companies in the country,? he said.
