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Jayanta Mallick

Kolkata, Oct. 8

Emami Paper has put on hold its writing and printing paper project in West Bengal in view of non-availability of land.

The 200,000-tonne capacity greenfield project, estimated to cost Rs 2,200 crore, was to come up on 1,400 acres at Kultikuri in West Midnapur district. The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation recently informed that it would not be able to help the company in the matter of land acquisition.

When contacted by Business Line, Mr Aditya Agarwal, Director of Emami Paper, declined to comment on the subject.

Sources said the company was still trying to salvage the project before deciding for an alternative location outside the State.

The company has planned a 1.5 lakh tonne per annum capacity addition at its existing newsprint manufacturing plant at Balasore in Orissa. Mr Agarwal said the Rs 500-crore project was to be commissioned within next 36 months.

Emami Paper’s current installed capacity is 1.45 lakh tonnes (lt). Of this, only 15,000 tpa is for writing and printing paper and the balance 1.3 lt is for newsprint. A mixture of internal accrual and debt in the ratio of roughly 30:70 would take care of the project investment, Mr Agarwal said.

The company produces newsprint from recycled paper. At present, it imports 30-40 per cent of recycled paper and the rest is procured from the domestic market.

According to observers, if the greenfield project were to come up, the company had thought of fresh equity injection apart from debt.

For the last brownfield expansion, which was commissioned at Balasore in March, the company had borrowed from ICICI and SBI. It has a paid-up capital of Rs 12.1 crore.

During the last financial year, it achieved a record production of 1,36,869 tonnes, compared with 82,499 tonnes in the previous year, an increase of 65.90 per cent. Turnover jumped 97.23 per cent at Rs 434.97 crore over that in 2007-08. The profit before depreciation and tax has increased 95.17 per cent from Rs 29.39 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 57.36 crore in 2008-09.

More Stories on : New Projects | Paper | rd & Newsprint

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