Fertiliser maker Coromandel International, part of the Rs 17,000-crore Murugappa Group, has finalised plans to set up a greenfield Single Super Phosphate plant in Punjab at a cost of Rs 116 crore.
The company's move to sharpen focus in the SSP segment comes in the wake of ballooning prices of phosphate fertilisers.
“The 800 tonnes per day plant, including 400 TPD granulator plant, will be ready in two years,” Mr A. Vellayan, Chairman of the company, told newspersons here on Wednesday.
Coromandel is also putting in another Rs 350 crore to develop a third train of production line at its Kakinada plant, which will scale up its capacity from the present 32 lakh tonnes to 40 lakh tonnes by 2013-14. It has so far spent Rs 100 crore.
Farm mechanisation solutions
Coromandel, which provides advisory and products services to farmers through its retail chain, plans to expand this business by providing farm mechanisation solutions.
“With the farming community facing acute labour shortage problems, there is a big market for farm mechanisation. In the case of paddy alone, the market size for farm mechanisation is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore,” Mr Vellayan said.
It has embarked upon a pilot project envisaging import of farm mechanisation products and providing mechanisation solutions to farmers for paddy transplantation, charging a fee of between Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,000 per acre.
“Once this business gathers critical mass, we will be considering setting up of manufacturing facility for farm mechanisation products, possibly within two to three years,” he said.