GSCL in talks with ITC for plant

Gulshan Sugars & Chemicals Ltd (GSCL), a major producer of calcium carbonate and sorbitol, is in talks with ITC Ltd for setting up a calcium carbonate production unit for the latter's paperboards and specialty papers business division.

A source close to the development said, "GSCL is in talks with ITC for setting up an onsite calcium carbonate manufacturing unit for ITC's paper division at Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh."

However, he clarified that the talks were in the initial stage and nothing had been finalised as yet.

According to the source, ITC is switching over to the non-alkaline paper production process and therefore it is keen to adopt calcium carbonate papermaking process.

Ground calcium carbonate (GCC) is widely used throughout the world for papermaking as it helps in producing papers with better whiteness and gloss and good printing properties. GCC is one of the grades derived from calcium carbonate.

ITC has initiated trial production by using GCC and the company is programming its current papermaking machinery to use GCC.

"The company is standardising the process in accordance with the technological need of producing paper using GCC," he said.

The deal is likely to be finalised once the trial production is completed after six months. GSCL has been a major producer of calcium carbonate in the organised sector and has more chances to clinch the deal, informs the source.

At present, the trial is going on paper machine 4 (PM4) of ITC's Bhadrachalam unit.

He further informed that the ITC's calcium carbonate manufacturing unit production capacity would be between 18,000 and 20,000 tonnes per annum.

According to the source, setting up of calcium carbonate manufacturing unit will help cost-saving up to 15 percent for ITC. "Drying, transportation and packaging are the major costs involved in the production of calcium carbonate," he said.

ITC manufactures packaging and graphic series of boards. ITC's Paperboards business has a manufacturing capacity of over 3.6 lakh tonnes per year and the company is a market leader in India across all carton-consuming segments including cigarettes, foods, beverages, pharma and others.