Phillips Carbon Black plans to expand capacity, build T.N. unit

Phillips Carbon Black Ltd., an RP-SG Group company is planning a 50% expansion in capacity through two brownfield projects at Mundhra and Palej and a greenfield one in Tamil Nadu, at an investment of about ₹900 crore.

PCBL Chairman Sanjiv Goenka said at a press meet that the firm would fund these programmes through a mix of debt and equity. “We may raise fresh equity of ₹400 crore,” he said. While about ₹600 crore would be required for the 1.5 lakh-tonne capacity greenfield unit at Ennore in Tamil Nadu, the balance would be earmarked for a 30,000-tonne expansion project at Palej and a 50,000-tonne project to free up bottlenecks at Mundhra. These would be ready between December 2018 and March 2019.

‘Ennore unit in 2 years’

Work on the Ennore project would begin ‘soon’, and would be completed in two years. The project was first announced in 2011.

The depressed auto sector as well as the global economic scenario had led to the project being put on the ‘backburner’, sources said.

PCBL had suffered losses for three consecutive years till 2015-16. “The outlook for carbon black is very good now. All the tyre companies are planning capacity expansions,” Mr. Goenka said.