Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Oct 20, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Oct 20, 2005 |
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Corporate
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New Projects ISRO to fund titanium sponge unit of KMML G.K. Nair
Kochi , Oct. 19 THE State-owned Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML) in Kollam district will set up a unit to manufacture titanium sponge with a capacity of 500 tonne per annum to meet the needs of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Disclosing this to Business Line, Mr K.P. Rajendran, Managing Director, KMML, said the total cost of the plant would come to Rs 100 crore and 95 per cent of it would be borne by the ISRO. Meanwhile, to start with given the possible delay in securing the technology from Russia, the KMML would use the technology available indigenously with the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory at Hyderabad. Evaluation of this technology has been completed, he said. "The Russians had come and assessed the unit here. But, it seems the technology transfer might take some more time". Given this scenario, "we thought of setting up the plant with the available indigenous technology which could be modified with the foreign technology later to make the plant a world class one", Mr Rajendran said. He said the President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, would be requested to lay the foundation stone later this year. The significance of this project is that it would be the first project that would become a reality amongst 10 missions spelt out by the President during his address in the Kerala Assembly in July last which Kerala could undertake using its core competence. The President in his address emphasised that titanium alloy was one of the preferred materials in the space and aircraft industry. Kerala has large deposits of titanium oxide. KMML in collaboration with ISRO and other private sector joint venture partners could establish a plant for converting titanium oxide into titanium sponge. With the setting up of this unit KMML would become the first unit in the country to manufacture titanium sponge, he said. In the world, the technology is available in a few countries such as Japan, Russia, the US, the UK, China and Germany. The manufacturing technology is kept as a closely guarded secret, he said. However in India, the DMRL has developed the sponge metal in batch process. "The basic technology is same but not stabilised," he said. The strength of KMML is the availability of infrastructure and highest titanium bearing ore in the same campus. "With the establishment of the titanium sponge unit also in the KMML campus, it would become a titanium complex probably the first to have all the units in one compound in the world, he added.
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