Epsilon Carbon to invest Rs 900 cr to set up integrated facility in Karnataka

Epsilon Carbon on Friday said it will set up an integrated carbon black facility at Bellary in Karnataka at a total investment of Rs 900 crore.

The coal tar derivatives company said the first phase of the project will be commissioned by the third quarter of the next fiscal.

"This Integrated Carbon Black Complex will be the first of its kind manufacturing facility in India using waste Coke Oven Gas from a steel plant as a fuel making this an environment-friendly set up with lower CO2 footprint," the company said in a statement.

Currently, Epsilon Carbon operates a 220,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) coal tar distillation facility that caters to 40 per cent of the pitch demand in the aluminum industry.

 

The first phase of the new integrated carbon black facility is expected to be commissioned by Q3 FY21 with an initial capacity of 115,000 TPA, it said.

"The company will further expand the overall capacity of this Integrated Carbon Black Facility to over 300,000 TPA by FY24. Epsilon Carbon is investing a total of Rs 900 crores across both project phases to establish the integrated carbon black facility," it added.

The company's Managing Director Vikram Handa said, "Our core advantage in the Indian Carbon Black sector is the security of raw material we provide to our customers. This encourages us to plan our future expansions to offer stable long-term supplies to our customers."

Globally, the tyre industry is a leading consumer of carbon black products. It is used as a reinforcing filler to improve the longevity of tyres.

Hence, carbon black gets approximately 93 per cent of its total volume demand from the rubber related industries, the statement said.

Moreover, carbon black is used as a black pigment in printing inks, paints, varnishes for dyeing and for UV protection of plastics as well as in speciality products such as decor paper and fibres. As conductive carbon black, it is used in the electrical industry to manufacture electrodes and carbon brushes.