Panama Petro lines up Rs 30 cr capex plan

The company is ramping up capacities at its Daman, Ankleshwar facilities

Mumbai-based specialty petrochemical manufacturer Panama Petrochem Ltd (PPL) is implementing a Rs 30 crore capital expenditure programme involving expansion of its capacities at Ankleshwar and Daman to meet increasing demand.

Amirali Rayani, managing director and chief executive officer, PPL, said, "The expansion project has been undertaken to meet the increasing demand from the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries."

Besides, the company also caters to diverse user industry base such as printing ink, agarbatti, perfumery, rubber, texturising, engineering, machinery, chemicals, petrochemical industries, power generation boards and defence.

The expansion plan involves raising capacities at their plants by 15,000 tonne per annum (tpa), from the existing 35,000 tpa to 50,000 tpa.

After the expansion, the production at Ankleshwar is expected to commence by the end of October 2005 and at Daman by the end of October 2006. PPL is also setting up a plant at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh which will cater mainly to the automotive lubricant segment and the specialty oil segment. Its Baddi plant is expected to begin production in January 2007.

The company plans to increase its authorised share capital from the current Rs five crore to Rs 11 crore and increase its borrowing limit to Rs 100 crore, by way of loans, debentures or any other form of fund expansion programmes.

The company's products are exported to the US, the UK, Middle East, Australia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Tanzania, Syria, Italy, Turkey and Nigeria.