| Oman granular urea plant, which is a joint venture project for production of 16.5 lakh tonnes of granular urea annually, promoted by Kribhco, Iffco and the Oman government, has already started trial production. |
| According to the agreement, Kribhco will market 50 per cent of the Oman plant production in the country. |
| The first consignment of 25,000 tonnes of urea was received at the Visakhapatnam port recently. "This year, we have selected Vizag and Chennai ports for urea imports. We are planning to use Kakinada and New Mangalore ports for urea imports during the next fiscal," V P Singh, director (marketing), Kribhco, said. |
| In the current year, Oman plant will produce about 11 lakh tonnes of urea. Iffco will market 50 per cent of the product and the remaining 50 per cent will be marketed by Kribhco. "We are making arrangements to market the product in the country. We will sell the imported urea mostly in the southern parts of the country," he said. |
| Quality wise, granular urea is superior to urea prills as it increases the yield up to 20 per cent. Also, it is more suitable for paddy and other commercial crops, he said. |
| At present, the international price for urea is about $ 280 per tonne, whereas at Oman plant, the production cost is between $115 and $150. "This is because of the availability of natural gas at a very cheaper price," Singh added. |
| With the new product, Kribhco expects it turnover to increase by Rs 250 crore during this fiscal. During last fiscal, Kribhco achieved a turnover of Rs 1,100 crore and its net profit stood at Rs 140 crore. This year, because of the additional five lakh tonnes of urea, it expects its turnover to cross Rs 1,350 crore with a net profit of about Rs 200 crore. |
| Kribhco is planning to invest about Rs 1,750 crore over the next three years to enhance its production capacity at its Hazira plant to 28.5 lakh tonnes from the existing 18 lakh tonnes, Singh said. |
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