The Hindu Business Line : Travancore Chemicals plans to have captive hydel plant

The power intensive Travancore Cochin Chemicals Ltd (TCCL) - which is manufacturing caustic soda, chlorine etc - has started exploring the possibilities for setting up a captive hydel project in the State.

"Preliminary studies are going on," Dr M.P. Sukumaran Nair, Managing Director of the company, told Business Line on Friday. Power being the major component of its raw material, low-cost electricity could improve its financial performance, he said.

Another area identified for improving its revenue is chlorine. The demand for this product has not been picking up, as downstream projects that use chlorine are capital intensive. According to Dr Nair, production of chlorinated latex could be a potential area, which could increase the demand for chlorine.

Chlorination Unit

He said that in the ports chlorinated rubber paint is used extensively because of the corrosive atmosphere. Since Kerala is the major producer of latex, TCCL is thinking of setting up a latex chlorination unit. The company is currently on the lookout for a suitable technology and once it becomes a reality that could improve chlorine utilisation, he said.

He said that the company's turnover during April-December 2006 stood at Rs 104 crore and it is expected to make an all time high turnover of Rs 145 crore as on March 31, 2007, compared with Rs 126 crore posted during the previous fiscal. As on December 31 it has made profit before tax of Rs 5.84 crore, he said. It does not have to pay tax because of its accumulated losses.

The capacity utilisation was over 100 per cent and the production during April-December stood at 42,800 tonnes and it is estimated to cross 58,000 tonnes during the current fiscal.

Raw Material Salt

As part of its cost reduction measures, TCCL is planning to transport the raw material salt from the Cochin port by barges to the unit located at Eloor near here.

Similarly, it has plans to supply its products to the major users such as the Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd at Chavara in Kollam through barges, he said.

The country has 34 chlor-alkali units like the TCCL manufacturing caustic soda and chlorine with a total annual capacity of 21 lakh tonnes.

The total investment in this sector is estimated at Rs 9,000 crore and the total turnover is Rs 4,600 crore. The national level capacity utilisation is 83 per cent, he said. The demand for caustic soda and chlorine indicates a cyclic nature. When casuistic soda demand picks up production swings up with an equivalent increase in production of chlorine. The chlorine so produced will create a surplus availability over the prevailing chlorine demand and hence it will dip the market price of chlorine.

Chlorine Manufacturing

Given this situation, the TCCL, he said, has already set up a mild bleach liquor plant for manufacturing a chlorine product, sodium hypochloride, under the brand name "Ekoclean" which could be used by the textile industry for bleaching and seafood industry in its peeling units as a disinfectant.

According to Dr Nair a large build up of capacity is seen in West Asia on account of availability of cheap power and fuel, major consumption centre is the emerging economies of Asia where industrial and commercial demand is on the rise.

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