Nava Bharat plans to expand Orissa plant

Nava Bharat Ferro Alloys is planning a debottlenecking-cum-expansion of its ferro chrome plant at Dhenkal district in Orissa, which will increase its production capacity to 75,000 tonne a year from the existing 50,000 tonne.

The company estimates the project to cost around Rs 10 crore, which will be met primarily through internal accruals.

"We are expecting the plant to be commissioned by sometime in October this year," said P Trivikram Prasad, the executive director of the company.

The company has another ferro alloys plant at Paloncha with a 75,000 tonnes annual capacity. The company has also set up a 30 mw captive coal-based power plant in Orissa which has already started power generation.

"We want to run the plant for about a month, before announcing the commercial production," Prasad said. The company has spent Rs 80 crore on setting up the power plant. It also has a 50 mw captive power plant at its Paloncha unit.

The company reported a 37 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 14.6 crore for the quarter ended December as against Rs 10.61 crore in Q3 of last year. There was a marginal fall in total income to Rs 103.24 crore from Rs 105.53 crore.

The rise in profits was primarily due to increase in stock-in-trade to Rs 11.58 crore and reduced financial charges to Rs 2.92 crore from Rs 4.1 crore during Q3 of last fiscal.

"We have repaid part of our debt, and managed our working capital expenditure at lower interest rates, which has resulted in reduced financial charges," Prasad explained. For the nine months ended December, the company posted a 56 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 36.4 crore as against Rs 23.28 crore in corresponding period last fiscal.