The Hindu Business Line : Rain Calcining plans $29-m expansion programme

RAIN Calcining Ltd (RCL), the Hyderabad-based Rs 333-crore calcined petroleum coke and power producer, has drawn up major growth plans involving a total capital outlay of $29 million which includes setting up a greenfield project in Kuwait and expansion of its calcinations facility in Visakhapatnam.

After completion of these projects, the company hopes to secure a place among the top five global calcining majors. At present, its key customer regions include Australia, South America, South Africa and West Asia.

A senior RCL official told Business Line that for the two new projects, the company has tied up for funds with three leading multilateral financial institutions - International Finance Corporation (IFC), Washington ($10 million), Nederlandse Financierings NV of Netherlands ($12 million) and Nordic Investment Bank of Finland ($7 million).

The company proposes to expand the capacity of its calcination plant at Visakhapatnam from three lakh tonnes per annum (tpa) to 4.8-lakh tpa by adding a rotary kiln, a waste heat recovery boiler and a flue gas scrubbing and particulate removal system.

The official said the board at its meeting on Thursday had also decided to upgrade the existing calciner. The expansion and modernisation will be completed in the first quarter of next year. The board has approved the proposal to set up a new greenfield calciner project in Kuwait with a consortium of leading Kuwait companies and the company's US-based foreign collaborator - Oxbow Carbon & Minerals LLC.

According to the official, this region has long been sought after for calciner industry expansion due to its access to exceptional quality raw material and its existing and fast expanding aluminium production.

The official said the construction rights for the 3.5-lakh tpa Kuwait calciner project were awarded to this consortium through a bid process administered by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, which would provide the entire raw materials, especially high quality aluminium grade green petroleum coke, for the calciner project. The construction of this greenfield project is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year and will be completed in 18 months.

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