• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

G.K. Nair

The new complex will be developed in such a way that it will be able to meet the demand of value-added titanium products such as titanium metal and sponge.

Kochi , Jan. 16

The Kerala Government has decided to integrate its two titanium units into one aimed at creating a world-class complex manufacturing value-added products.

Final decision on whether to merge Travancore Titanium Products Ltd (TTPL) and Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML) and make it a holding company would be taken soon, the State Industries Minister, Mr Elamaram Kareem, told Business Line.

"It is going to be a long-term project and hence its size, modality etc would be discussed by a national panel of experts," he said.

The panel would be constituted this month and its first meeting is likely to be held next month.

NEW COMPLEX

The new complex will be developed in such a way that it will be able to meet the demand of value-added titanium products such as titanium metal and sponge required by the Defence Ministry, Anomic Energy Department and ISRO. These products could also find better markets overseas, he said.

Mr Kareem said value-addition needed new technology and some of the defence research laboratories have agreed to offer the required technology.

Expansion project

On shelving of KMML's expansion programme at Shangaramangalam in Kollam district, probably the world's first fully integrated titanium dioxide plant, the Minister said that there had been allegations from several trade unions about the functioning of the company in recent years and hence the work on all the expansion projects have been stopped.

He said a sub-committee had been constituted by the KMML director board to look into the allegations. The Government will initiate action only after studying the review report by the board.

According to him, the Government had sanctioned only Rs 756 crore for capacity expansion and other related projects and as against this the total cost of the projects has crossed Rs 1,200 crore. Contracts were issued without approval and LCs (letters of credit) were opened. Financial closure of the projects was also not concluded, Mr Kareem alleged.

Kerala Minerals could become a world-class producer of mineral sand based value-added products besides becoming a nodal agency for promoting and establishing mineral based industries in the State to ensure value-addition and effective and controlled exploitation of mineral reserves.

pact WITH ISRO

As part of efforts to indigenously produce materials for its space programme, ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, has signed a memorandum of understanding with KMML for establishing a 500 tonnes per annum titanium sponge

plant, using the technology from the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad.

More Stories on : Mergers & Acquisitions | Metals | Kerala | PSU

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Phillips Carbon earns Rs 2.8 cr from CERs

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line