Tata Chemicals (TCL) today announced it will invest Rs 565 crore to set up two facilities in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, to manufacture soluble dietary fibres and silica, respectively.
The company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Andhra Pradesh government last month to seal a Rs 270 crore investment plan to set up a biotechnology unit in Nellore district for manufacturing soluble dietary fibres, a press release issued here said.
Additionally, it said, investment of Rs 295 crore has been approved to set up a plant in Gujarat for manufacturing precipitated highly dispersible silica.
"These investments in innovative specialty businesses mark a significant milestone in our journeyto build technologyenabled differentiationin our products and brands. Withour investment in Gujarat, we are aiming to value add to our soda ash business, and through investment in nutritional solutions business in Andhra, we aim toserve demanding and critical segments such asEarly Life Nutrition (infant nutrition) and medical foodsthrough ingredients, formulations and customisedproducts," Tata Chemicals Managing Directer and CEO R Mukundan said.
While dispersible silica, a specialty chemical, represents downstream value addition to TCL's soda ash business, precipitated silica has applications in several industries including rubber, coatings, pesticides and oral care, and seven patents have already been filed for the company's product.
These products are a result of the company's in-house Research and Development efforts and were undertaken at their Innovation Centre in Pune.
The Innovation Center has already filed 7 patents for its technology for manufacturing highly dispersible silica.
TCL is a part of the over USD 100 billion Tata Group.
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