The state-owned National Fertilizer Limited (NFL) has achieved record gross sales of ₹8,928 crore in 2017-18, about 17 per cent more than ₹7,643 crore in the financial year prior to that, its Chairman and Managing Director Manoj Mishra has said.

An all-time high sale of 43.09 lakh tonnes (LT) of fertilisers – 39.16 LT of urea and 3.93 LT of imported fertilisers such as DAP and MoP – helped NFL earn a net profit of ₹212.77 crore, which is 2 per cent more than that in 2016-17.  The earnings per share of ₹10 in 2017-18 has been ₹4.34.

During the period, the combined capacity utilisation of NFL plants in Nangal, Bhatinda, Panipat and Vijaipur (two units) was 118 per cent helping NFL to produce 38.10 LT of urea, Mishra said while talking to media persons on Friday.

The Ramagundam plant, formerly owned by the Fertiliser Corporation of India, which is being revived by NFL would be operational later in the current financial year, adding an additional capacity of 12.5 LT, he said.

According to Mishra, what helped NFL, which accounts for 15.5 per cent of total urea production in the country, to improve its financial performance were energy efficient operation of its plants and also the strategic decision taken two years ago to undertake the import of potassic and phosphatic fertilisers, other than foraying into seed multiplication and production and trading of other agrochemicals. The share of non-urea products in NFL’s total turnover increased to 15 per cent from 12 per cent in 2016-17. Agrochemicals in particular, though still forms a small base, grew by an impressive 13.5 times during the period.

“The sale of close to 4 LT of non-urea fertilisers this year is just a becoming. We want to increase this to 1 to 1.2 million tonnes by next year,” Mishra said.

Investment

The fertiliser company has plans to invest a total of ₹1250 crore over the next 24 months. NFL has an outstanding fertiliser subsidy of ₹3800 crore.

NFL, Mishra said, plans to participate in the forthcoming tender for importing urea for the first time. The urea handling contract that the Government of India gives for the import of urea has expired in March and it has been extended till June. A new tender is expected once the current contract is over.

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