Sirpur places Rs 71cr orders with BHEL, other Indian cos

Andhra Pradesh-based integrated pulp and paper mill, Sirpur Paper Mills Limited (SPML), has placed orders worth Rs 71 crore with Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), Alpha Level and a few other companies to modernise its manufacturing plant in Adilabad district.

These orders come close on the heels of SPML acquiring plant and machinery of Houffmann and Angelmaan's paper manufacturing unit for Euro 3.3 million in Germany. It has also placed another order worth Euro 10.5 million with Andritz, Germany, for its pulp mill. The total foreign currency exposure for Sirpur works out to Euro 13.8 million or Rs 75 crore.

SPML has embarked upon a Rs 294-crore expansion and modernisation plan which is scheduled to be completed by November 2006. The company is expanding its capacity from 83,500 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 1.38 lakh tpa.

"Eventually, we want to increase the capacity to 2 lakh tpa," company's chief operating officer Devashish Poddar told Business Standard.

The modernisation plan was conceived keeping in mind the Charter of Responsibility for Environment Protection (CERP), which is a road map for progressive improvement in environmental management systems. In fact, Poddar envisages that there will be a consolidation in the paper industry on account of the CERP.

"Small mills may not survive as they need lot of money for upgradation to meet the CERP guidelines," he said.

As a part of its efforts to make its operations environmental friendly, SPML placed an order with BHEL for a 650-tonne recovery boiler costing Rs 28 crore. The machinery is a part of the process equipment for recovery of chemicals. A Rotary Lime Klin FFE mineral has also been commissioned at cost a of Rs 20 crore, which will reduce solid wastewater by reburning of Lime.

Poddar said that SPML was planning to make copier paper and maplitho grade of paper, which have higher growth rates and margins. The company would also set up a chlorine plant due to which the brightness of its paper will increase. " We are into niche segment in which competition is less," he added.