From SIFY comes word that Phillips Carbon Black Ltd. (Kolkata, India) plans to invest RS 500-crore (US$127 million) over the next 16 months to expand carbon black capacity and add co-generation power units. The projects will take capacity to 440,000 tonnes/year from present 275,000 tonnes/year. The information is based on an interview with Reuters by PCBL Chairman Sanjiv Goenka.
PCBL is building a new plant in Mundhra in the western state of Gujarat with an annual capacity of 75,000 tonnes/year. The remaining capacity will be added at an existing plant in Kochi in the southern state of Kerala. The new plant will have 16 MW of co-generation power, while the expansion in Kochi will add another 12 MW, bringing the company’s total cogen capacity to 78 MW.
These expansions were detailed in November at the Seoul conference, where Ashok Goyal of PCBL presented a paper entitled “Current Economic and Market Scenario in India.” The figures presented in the paper were 75,000 tonnes for the Mundhra plant in 2008 and 50,000 tonnes at the Kochi plant in 2009, which would take company capacity to 400,000 tonnes. More on this to come.