The Hindu Business Line : BILT unit plans expansion

The Thapar group company BILT Paper Holdings plans to expand capacity of BILT Graphic Papers India, formerly known as Sinar Mas Pulp and Paper India.Talking to presspersons, Mr Gautam Thapar, BILT Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, said BILT is all set to expand its capacity at its plant near Bhigwan, Pune, by another 25,000 tonnes. The plant capacity currently is 1.5 lakh tonne coated paper. The investment that would go into this expansion would be more than Rs 20 crore, he said. This is expected to be completed within 18 months time.

BILT had acquired Sinar Mas in 2001 at a consideration of $114.5 million (about Rs 530 crore). This included a purchase price of $62.5 million for equity and the assumption of liability of Sinar Mas (India) amounting to $52 million, which was financed through ICICI, Standard Chartered Bank and Rabo Bank.

He noted that the company is also looking at further expansion but pointed out that there was `nothing concrete as of now'. If it takes place, this would mean an addition of a new machine which would be able to produce two lakh tonnes paper per annum and would be basically for uncoated products. He said with that this production capacity would increase from the present 1.3 lakh tonnes to 3.75 lakh tonnes. "But all this would happen only after one-and-half years,'' he said.

Mr Gautam looking at the newspaper industry noted that the major concern was how the market would develop, duty structure etc. Quoting an example, he pointed out that some of the new States that have been formed have a different structure of investment wherein they have been exempted from excise duty for 10 years. "Considering the amount that goes in the form of excise duty, companies would like to make their new investment in these newly-formed States. But so far no such move seems to have taken place,'' he noted.

He said the IPMA (Indian Paper Manufacturers Association) have recorded their strong protest about this while noting that "there are gaps between the notification and the understanding of the regulations that have been brought into the paper segment and nobody the wiser.'' He, however, pointed out that the outlook of the newspaper industry was bright and added that the global prices have been firming up since the beginning of the year and the knock-off effect of this would become observant within the next six to eight months.

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