The Hindu Business Line : BOC India plans 190-tpd gas plant in Hyderabad

BOC India Ltd proposes to set up a tonnage merchant plant at Hyderabad. This will be the sixth of its kind in the BOC family and the first in South India.

Talking to newspersons at the end of the annual general meeting here on Wednesday, the BOC India's Managing Director, Mr Sanjiv Lamba, said that the 190-tpd plant would be producing liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon. "The total investment is estimated at Rs 65 crore," Mr Lamba said. The Hyderabad plant, to be commissioned in November 2005, would cater to the growing gas requirements of pharmaceuticals, fabrication, biotech and other industries in the South.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal, BOC India's net profit amounted to Rs 4.32 crore as compared to Rs 2.16 crore in the same period of the last fiscal. "We expect the trend to continue as the outlook for the steel industry is bright," he said pointing out that steel contributed to nearly 50 per cent of the company's total revenue.

BOC India was also negotiating with SAIL which was planning to doubleits capacity to 20 million tonne, the managing director said.

Mr Lamba said that the company's project engineering division has secured a number of orders for erection and commissioning of air separation units (ASU) on turnkey basis. The orders included setting up of a Rs 100 crore 1,260-tpd ASU for steel major in Western India. The orders were also secured from Cochin Refineries Ltd and Hindustan Zinc.

Earlier, addressing the AGM, the Chairman, Mr J.N. Sapru, said that the gases industry continued to be driven by the demand for oxygen. With steel industry witnessing a sharp rise in demand, the future augurs well for the industry, he said.