The Hindu Business Line : KMML turnover up to Rs 268 cr

THE Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML), the grey-gold company in the State public sector, at Chavara in Kollam district has increased its sales turnover to Rs 267.60 crore in 2003-04 from Rs 260.88 crore in 2002-03.

The company, which had increased its exports from 7,174.37 tonnes in 2002-03 to 7,285.84 tonnes in the last fiscal, is estimated to make a net profit of Rs 80 crore as on March 31, 2004, Mr N.P. Rajendran, Managing Director, KMML, told Business Line on Wednesday. He said that there had been a shortfall in the production of titanium dioxide rutile grade pigment (Ti02) last fiscal "due to shut down works connected with commissioning of new bagging machine." However, the sales of Ti02 in 2003-04 stood at 27,425.36 tonnes against 26,746.26 tonnes the previous fiscal. Besides, titanium dioxide the company produces synthetic rutile, zircon and titanium tetrachloride, Mr Rajendran said. The ilmenite production had gone up by 64 per cent, while zircon and rutile recorded an increase of 275 per cent and 349 per cent respectively, he said. Synthetic rutile went up by 16.5 per cent. Sales have steadily improved both in the domestic and export segments, he added.

The company, Mr Rajendran said, has been able to establish a good standing in the international market and as a result, it has in hand export order of 7,040 tonnes in the first of the current fiscal itself. The export target set for 2004-05 is 15,000 tonnes. "In fact, the company finds it difficult to accommodate all the export orders and hence, for the time being it has been restricted to 40 per cent of the total production of Ti02," he added.

KMML had already signed a contract to supply 6,200 tonnes of Ti02 to China this fiscal. It exports to 20 countries and the major importers among them are South Korea, South Africa, Italy and Turkey, he said. The demand growth varies from country to country. However, it is estimated at around 18 per cent in China, he added.

"KMML, an ISO 9001-2000, is confident that it will be able to expand its overseas market in the coming years. As our product is not recyclable, its demand is increasing rapidly all over the world," he said.

Mr Rajendran said that the domestic demand was also growing at 5 per cent annum. Given the upward trend in both domestic and export demand, the company is in the process of expanding its capacity to one lakh tonne of Ti02 per annum by 2007-08 by modifying the existing processing technology, from the current year's targeted production of 40,000 tonnes. The unit's production capacity was around 20,000 tonnes of Ti02. The central public sector, Mecon is already on the capacity expansion job, he said.

The total cost of the expansion project is estimated to be around Rs 750 crore, he said.

The present global demand of TiO2 is 50 million tonnes, which is produced by 71 companies around the world.

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