The capacity of the Coromandel DAP plant here will increase by five lakh tonnes by November, as the expansion project is in the final stages, according to Murugappa Group Chairman A. Vellayan.
The existing capacity of the plant is 1.5 million tonnes. “When we acquired the plant, formerly known as Godavari Fertilisers, the capacity was 6 lakh tonnes only, but after de-bottlenecking it went up to 1.5 million tonnes. Further, we invested Rs 400 crore for expanding the capacity. Kakinada is ideally suited for expansion,” he said here on Thursday.
The Murugappa group had also invested in a joint venture here with Cargill to set up a refined sugar unit for export purposes. About Rs 500 crore was invested in the unit. “But unfortunately due to non-availability of natural gas, the unit is not functioning for the past six-seven months and we are looking at alternative sources of fuel. It is unfortunate, but it has not dampened or deterred us. We will continue to invest here,” Vellayan said.
The joint venture of Coromandel in Tunisia would also be ready by November, and “the phosphatic acid for our expanded capacity in the plant here will come from Tunisia.”
He said Coromandel was also concentrating on organic fertilisers and this year it had produced 3,50,000 tonnes. The target was to take it to one million tonnes. The group had also taken up farm mechanisation schemes in Andhra Pradesh. “There is acute labour scarcity for farm operations in many areas, due to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme , and therefore the need for mechanisation has grown. We are importing equipment and trying to modify it to suit our conditions,” he said.