N R Agarwal Industries starts land acquisition for a new multilayer board plant in Gujarat; to shut down its Valsad duplex board plant.
N R Agarwal Industries is setting up a new multilayer board plant (Unit VI) in Dahej, Gujarat at an estimated capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day (tpd) and an investment of INR 1,200 crore ($134 million). The company has commenced the process of acquiring land in Dahej for the project. It has planned to acquire approximately 145 acres of land for unit VI, which shall be undertaken in multiple tranches.
The first tranche of sale deeds was executed on December 19, and the company is yet to disclose further information. According to reliable sources, N R Agarwal Industries has approved purchase of a 2013 made, 4.3-meter deckle board machine with pulp stock preparation equipment from China with combined capacity of 1,020 tpd. One source mentioned that Germany based Voith is supplying size press and coater. Order for a stock preparation system has been placed to Austria-based Andritz, and shoe press is being purchased from PMT Italia.
Some other components are being supplied from China. Talking about the business rationale for a new board plant, a contact said that requirements of paper-based packaging material from the food industry have increased, and the ban on certain single uses of plastic in the country has driven demand for paper packaging further, which will continue to see a significant rise. Once operational, it may take about four years to fully utilize the 1,000 tonnes capacity of unit VI. On July 7, the company launched value-added food grade folding box board (FBB) from its board machine located at Sarigam unit in Gujarat.
The machine (PM2 of Unit V) has 1,000 tpd capacity for producing FBB and greyback duplex board. N R Agarwal Industries has planned to permanently close its 100 tpd duplex board plant (Unit IV) in Valsad, Gujarat, operations have been suspended since July 01, 2024. The source said that small tonnage unit is not required as Unit I has a 10,000 tpd capacity for making greyback and PM2 of Unit V is also producing board.
News Courtesy: Old Economy
