The Hindu Business Line : Mawana Sugars plans Rs 535-cr capacity expansion

Mr Siddharth Shriram, MD, Mawana Sugars Ltd, addressing a press conference in the Capital on Wednesday to announce the company's expansion plans. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Aug 10

MAWANA Sugars on Wednesday announced its plans to invest Rs 535 crore over the next two years towards setting up new sugar mills, co-generation and distillery plants, and enhancing capacity of present units.

With these investments, the company's total cane crushing capacity is expected to increased to 31,000 tonnes per day (TCD) from the current 17,000 TCD.

The company plans to set up a new 5,000 TCD capacity sugar unit in western Uttar Pradesh, the exact location of which is yet to be decided. It is already in the process of setting up a new 5,000 TCD sugar mill near Meerut (western Uttar Pradesh), the first phase of which would be over by November 2005.

"These two projects involve Rs 250 crore of investment," said Mr Siddharth Shriram, Managing Director, Mawana Sugars Ltd, in a press conference.

"We would raise the Rs 535-crore partly through internal accruals, sale of unproductive assets, and raising debt and equity from the market," said Mr Shriram. He said exact details would be ironed out by December.

It plans to expand the existing plants at Mawana and Titawi and the new unit (under construction) with an investment of Rs 175 crore by 2007. The capacity at Mawana is expected to touch 8,500 TCD from 6,000 TCD, and that of Titawi is expected to go up by 1,000 TCD from 11,000 TCD.

The company also plans to set up a 30 MW co-generation plant with an investment of Rs 60 crore.

Also planned is an ethanol distillery that would produce 120 kilo litre a day with an investment of Rs 50 crore.

For the year ending September, Mawana (the company's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30) projects a net profit of Rs 55 crore.

On exports to Pakistan, Mr Shriram said: "The Government hasn't released any quota to anyone. Exports can't take place unless we have any export quota. Many exporters have applied to the Government and they haven't got any response so far. We are also looking at exporting some quantity to Pakistan."

On the ethanol-blending programme, he said given the soaring oil prices, "the Government will have no option but to promote the use of ethanol."

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