PCBL posts a 22 % rise in net sales in Q4 FY 2011-12

KOLKATA: Phillips Carbon Black (PCBL), an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, posted a 22 % rise in net sales at Rs 539.61 crore in the fourth-quarter (Q4) ended March 31, 2012, against Rs 443.27 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Company officials attribute the improved Q4 net sales to sales price increase on account of steep increase in raw material prices.

“The performance of the company has been impacted due to lower offtake by tyre companies and higher imports of carbon black in the country from China at dumping prices, resulting in lower capacity utilisation after the commissioning of Mundra line in April 2011,” the company stated in a mediastatement issued on Wednesday.

The company’s board of directors have recommended a dividend of 40 % (or Rs 4 per share) for the FY 2011-12.

The debottlenecking at Durgapur has been successfully completed, increasing capacity by 12,000 tonne of carbon black. Implementation of additional CPP of 8 MW at Mundra, and expansion of 50,000 tonne of carbon black at Cochin are progressing as per schedule, All the projects are expected to be commissioned within the next 3 months.

Upon completion of these projects, PCBL’s total power generation capacity will increase to 78.5 MW and carbon black capacity to 472,000 tonne per annum. meanwhile, project work at Vietnam is progressing as per schedule.

Presently, Phillips Carbon Black has an installed capacity of 410,000 tonne and co-generation power capacity of 68.5 MW spread over four locations - Durgapur (West Bengal), Mundra, Palej (Gujarat) and Kochi (Kerala).