AV Birla to fire up carbon black units
The Aditya Birla group plans to invest $550-$600 million in ramping up its carbon black capacities in India and abroad over the next four years to meet growing demand and also increase market share in the competitive industry.
The group, which now makes close to 8 lakh tonnes through all its units, will take it up to 1.1 million tonnes by 2010, said company whole-time director Rakesh Jain. “This is what we are planning to do… it (the total capacities) may also go up if we acquire some existing plants,” he added.
The investments will be through new plants in Mexico and at Patalganga in India and also by doubling existing capacities in China and Egypt. Its units include Hi-Tech Carbon in India, Alexandria (Egypt), Thai Carbon (Thailand) and Liaoning in China.The $24 billion, Mumbai-based conglomerate, had bought the unit in China and is already the world’s largest maker at a single location through its Egypt facility.
