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RCF in Rs 500 million JV with Belgium company for expansion

Public sector unit Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers is setting up a joint venture with UCB Group of Belgium to install an additional production capacity at methyl amines plant at an estimated cost of Rs 500 million.

The proposed 50:50 joint venture would not only increase the present capacity of methyl amines from 5,000 tonnes to 25,000 tonnes but also help RCF to get into the business of agro-chemicals in a big way in near future, RCF chairman and managing director Deepak Kumar Varma said.

After inaugurating the new atmospheric ammonia storage facility at its Trombay complex, Varma told visiting newspersons that said the joint venture as well as the storage facility were a part of the company's long-term strategy to revamp and modernise the three-decade-old vintage plants of RCF into a most cost-efficient, environment friendly and productive unit in the country.

''Our endeavour would be to make the RCF plants and equipment a showpiece, a new benchmark of safety standard and productivity,'' he said.

For this, RCF is spending about Rs 5 billion at its Trombay complex near Bombay, which includes a sewerage treatment plant (Rs 380 million), ammonia synthetic plant (Rs 1 billion), modernisation of nitric acid plant (Rs 1 billion), bagging and packaging plant (Rs 1 billion) and replacement of equipment such as compressor (Rs 600 million).

Besides, the fertiliser giant is integrating its network of marketing, operation, management information system and administration through computers at a cost of Rs 150 million. The contract was given to NIIT for implementation in the next 15 months.

RCF which doubled up its net profits from Rs 170 million to Rs 340 million for the year 1997-98, had been struggling to enhance its productivity with plants and machinery of 1960s and drew severe public critisism for causing pollution in Chembur and Trombay areas of north-east Bombay.

Today, under the leadership of Varma, it is in the process of installing various safety measures such as two ammonia storage tanks of 5,000 tonnes each capacity within the complex and also setting up sewerage treatment plant to recycle waste water for industrial use.

The ammonia tanks would remove the risks of carrying the ammonia through a 5-km-long pipeline from Pir-pau jetty on Bombay harbour to the RCF plant particularly when the pipeline is passing through thickly populated areas. The project completed in a record 16 months time, has been certified by a world renowned third party inspection agency called Tuv of Germany for safety measures.

On dilution of government holding in RCF, Varma said that it would be appropriate to divest the government holding only after completion of various expansion and modernisation programmes which would be costing around Rs 20 billion in the next three to five years. The Rs 1.15 billion furmic acid plant is ready for commissioning in the next fortnight at Thal complex in Raigarh district of Maharashtra.

The RCF shipping line joint venture with Shipping Corporation of India is at the final stage of implementation while the Oman joint venture fertiliser project is likely to complete its financial closure by the end of this year.

RCF is also in discussions with certain parties to set up a joint venture plant for manufacturing of di-ammonia phosphate fertiliser plant at a cost of Rs 12 billion either at Thal in Maharashtra or at Gujarat or Rajasthan depending on the selection of joint venture partners.

UNI