Deepak Fert Setting Up Nitrate Unit At Taloja

Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation (DFPCL) is setting up a prilled ammonium nitrate (AN) plant at its Taloja manufacturing facility near Mumbai.

The AN facility will have a capacity of 1,00,000 tonne per annum. The Pune-based company has already entered into an alliance with Grande Paroisse of France for a technology tie-up.

"The site work is already underway for the new AN plant, which is likely to be fully commissioned by September-October 2002," the company said in a press release. As per the company's long-term growth strategy, Deepak Fertilisers has already commissioned an additional weak nitric acid plant imported from Ireland last year to supply the key raw material for AN.

The project outlay for the division is around Rs 55 crore. The new AN plant will help bring further economies of scale, and consolidate volume driven competitive strategies, both in domestic and international markets. This will also help the company to focus on the value-added products and services in the near future, it said.

Deepak Fertilisers is one of the leading manufacturer of phosphatic fertilisers, industrial chemicals and prilled ammonium nitrate. AN is used by mining and construction industry in India.

The company's facilities at Taloja is based on the world-renowned technology form Stamicarbon of the Netherlands. The production/sale of various grades of ammonium nitrate is slated to cross 70,000 metric tonne for 2001-02. The company has already started exporting to the Middle-East and south-east Asian countries.