Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL)

Zuari Maroc Phosphates Ltd. (ZMPL) is a 50:50 joint venture between Zuari Industries Ltd. and Maroc Phosphore S.A., Morocco. It was established as a Special Purpose Vehicle for acquisition of majority stake in Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL).   ZMPL holds an 80.45% equity stake in PPL thereby making it a subsidiary of ZMPL.  www.zuari.in

December 17, 2011 - IFFCO’s Paradeep unit has received prestigious ‘ FAI Technical Innovation award -2011’ founded by Fertilizer Association of India, New Delhi for its outstanding performance and innovation in treatment of  Sulphuric Acid plant.  Srikanta Jena, Union minister statistics and programme implementation, chemical and fertilizer presented the award in an annual FAI seminar held in New Delhi and IFFCO’s senior executive director Mr M R Patel received the award from minister.  IFFCO’s innovative plan implementing  ‘Siphon breaking arrangement for acid circulation pumps in Sulphuric acid plant and Acid draining arrangement of brick lined acid towers in sulphuric acid plant’ in factory, Both the initiatives were discussed at the FAI seminar and selected IFFCO’s Paradeep unit getting  the award.  Executive director Mr Patel has described this prestigious award is a great reorganization and congratulated employees and workers for their dedication and devotion, IFFCO’s Paradeep unit received the award. 

July 24, 2011 - Fertilizer company Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL) has unveiled an investment plan of Rs 600 crore.  PPL will establish a sulphuric acid plant with a daily capacity of 2,000 tonnes besides enhancing capacity and efficiency of the existing sulphuric acid plant, the phosphoric acid plant and fertilizer plant, a statement by the company's corporate affairs adviser, S Acharya, said. The company will also create additional residential accommodation and township facilities.  After completion of the expansion, the plant will have a capacity of 15,00,000 tonnes annually, the statement said.  The company posted a net profit of Rs 177.08 crore in the financial year 2010-11 compared to Rs 151.55 crore the previous year, the statement said.  The company's total income in the last fiscal stood at Rs 3630.64 crore. PPL's profit before tax stood at 239.18 crore compared to 179.73 crore a year before.  PPL produced 12 lakh metric tonne of festilizers comprising 6.6 lakh mt of DAP and 5.4 lakh mt of NPK complexes in 2010-11. The company achieved a sales turn over of Rs 24 crore from selling crop protection chemicals in the brand name of Navratna, it said.

May 19, 2011 - After registering record production in last fiscal and making a sick fertilizer unit to a profit earning unit now IFFCO’s Paradeep unit is moving massive expansion plans that includes growth of Sulphuric Acid plant of 3500 MTPD and a single super phosphates plant of 1200 MTPD capacity and about Rs 700 crore would be spent for the endeavors, informed Mr M R Patel, senior Executive Director, IFFCO’s Paradeep unit.  Speaking to the local press persons at Paradeep on Tuesday Director Mr Patel revealed that the last fiscal 2010-11 has derived our Paradeep unit achieving records in the fields of production, energy conservation, environment management and succeeded gaining two prestigious National  awards for outstanding performance in energy conservation.  IFFCO achieved fertilizer production of 16.62 Metric tones in just ended fiscal suppressing the previous production recorded 15.00 metric tones in the year 2009-10 and highest DAP production achieved 9.16 metric tones in the year 2010-11, he said.  The plant management put emphasis on several environmental measures for making the premises zero pollution and state pollution control board having satisfied with such measures given 5 years pollution clearance and meanwhile house committee of Odisha assembly paid a visit to the plant site and endorsed appreciation inspecting ground realties over pollution control efforts launched by IFFCO past few years.  IFFCO’s Paradeep unit after making consecutive profit and achieving success in turnaround plan has been chalked its expansion and about Rs 700 crore would be spent expansion of sulphuric acid plant and single super phosphate plant including some developmental works like construction of plant site roads, raising height of drains from floor level, horticulture and plantation activities, improve the sprinkler system in conveyers and de dusting system in port area includes in the expansion spree, executive director informed.  IFFCO earned name in country after acquiring an ailing private limited company to the cooperative sector and made total turn around and made it profit making unit last five years so executive director Mr Patel quipped prosperity could be possible due to sincere efforts of IFFCO higher-ups and commitment of working employees including cooperation from Odisha government, Executive  Director said.

May 17, 2011 - Enthused by production of 16.62 lakh tonnes of fertiliser and 95 per cent capacity utilisation in 2010-11, fertiliser giant IFFCO today announced a Rs 700 crore expansion plan for its Paradip unit involving addition of new plants. "Our Paradip unit is going for expansion of complex with addition of Sulphuric Acid plant of 3500 MTPD capacity," IFFCO Senior Executive Director M R Patel told reporters here. Similarly, the expansion activities to be carried out at an investment of Rs 700 crore would also include addition of a Single Super Phosphate (SSP) plant of 1,200 MTPD capacity, he said. Stating that the unit produced 16.62 lakh tonnes of fertiliser and achieved almost 95 per cent capacity utilisation, Patel said Phosphoric Acid plant also produced 6.56 lakh tonnes, achieving 75 per cent capacity utilisation. Sulphuric Acid plant also produced 19 lakh tonnes of acid, achieving around 82 per cent capacity utilisation. There is also significant reduction in energy consumption in the complex, Patal said adding IFFCO has given importance to clean and green environment by implementing several schemes to reduce the pollutants to bare minimum. IFFCO won the '11th Global Greentech Environment Excellence Award 2010-Silver' for outstanding achievement in Environment Management in fertiliser sector. Emphasis was also laid on improving the infrastructure to ensure that the plants run smoothly without any safety hazard, he said adding IFFCO is exporting surplus power to GRIDCO, Orissa after meeting its own requirement. Phospho-Gypsum is sold to cement plants for agricultural purposes in various parts of the country, Patel said.

April 7, 2011 - The Paradip plant of Indian Farmers' Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (Iffco) has achieved a record production of 16.62 lakh tons, thereby exceeding the annual target of 16.30 lakh tonnes during 2010-11.  The company also broke all its previous records by producing highest amount of phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid , Di-ammonium phosphate and electric power.  During 2010-11, the company achieved a capacity utilization of 94.8 per cent of its complex fertilizer plant, surpassing the previous record of 90 per cent achieved in 2009-10.  In the same period, the company almost doubled its phosphoric acid exports to 71,556 tonnes, according to a company release.

August 29, 2010 - Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL), a former public sector unit now run by the K K Birla Group, will invest about Rs 500 crore to set up new plants and undertake major expansion work over the next three years.  “As per the plans, about Rs 250 crore will be spent on setting up a new 2000-tonne-per-day Sulphuric Acid plant and a new gypsum pond at an investment of Rs 100 crore, besides debottlenecking and upgrading the existing Phosphoric Acid plant by spending about Rs 70 crore,” PPL managing director, S Nandurdikar said here on Saturday.   This apart, the Company will set up a 20 MW captive cogeneration power plant.  As part of a diversification programme, the company also plans to add some new items to its basket of products, including two new micro-nutrients and pesticides, Mr Nadurdikar said.  “Accelerating the drive to expand its portfolio, PPL is also planning to introduce ammonia/urea, besides gearing up to set up a state-of-the-art soil testing laboratory in Bhubaneswar,” the MD informed.  In 2009-10, PPL achieved production of 12.12 lakh metric tonnes of DAP and complex fertilizers. Among the intermediary products, Sulphuric Acid and Phosphoric Acid productions were recorded at 6,35,520 MTs and 2,24,500 MTs, respectively.

July 14, 2010 - IFFCO's Paradeep phosphoric acid plant, the world’s largest, has achieved a more than 100% capacity utilisation, marking an important progress in reducing India s dependence on imported phosphoric acid.  Against an installed capacity of 2650 tonnes/day, the plant produced 2700 tonnes on Saturday, 10th July, 2010.  India is stockpiling imported fertilisers in anticipation of normal monsoons and a bumper harvest even as global prices go up.  Import price for sulphur has shot up to between $152-205/tonne. For rock phosphate, import prices gone up in the range of $130/tonne(Morocco) to $95/tonne (Egypt).  Both sulphur and rock phosphate are key ingredients for the manufacture of phosphoric acid and both ingredients are mainly imported into the country. During last fiscal, despite raw material constraints Iffco produced 4.62 lakh tonne of Phosphoric acid at its Paradeep unit. IFFCO Paradeep is now the country's largest phosphatic fertilizer complex with world s largest single stream phosphoric acid plant.  Managing Director, Iffco, Dr.U.S.Awasthi said We have achieved significant improvement in capacity utilization, despite certain constraints, including original design deficiencies.

June 14, 2010 - The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (Iffco) plans to invest around Rs 500 crore to retrofit and augment the capacity of its phosphatic/complex nutrients plant here to 30 lakh tonnes (lt) a year .   The Paradeep facility – which the Rs 17,000-crore cooperative acquired from the Abhey Oswal Group in October 2005 – now has a rated annual production capacity of 19.20 lt of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and other nitrogen-phosphorous (NP) fertilisers.   Since its takeover, Iffco has managed to raise the output of this once-ailing unit from 0.30 lt in 2005-06, to 7.50 lt in 2006-07, 8.66 lt in 2007-08 and 13.06 lt in 2008-09. During the fiscal ended March 31, 2010, production touched 15 lt: 4.02 lt DAP and 10.98 lt of NP complexes.  “We have significantly improved capacity utilisation. But there are certain constraints, including original design deficiencies, that need to be addressed, for which we envisage investments of Rs 500 crore or so,” Mr M.R. Patel, Executive Director, Iffco, told visiting presspersons. 
The existing plant, based on the technology of Jacobs Engineering (US), has three production streams of 2,090 tonnes a day each.  “The plant's main problem is that it is a steel structure with asbestos sheets. This structure is not suited for the humid and saline environment here, as the moist air entering the building can come into contact with DAP, which is a hygroscopic (water-absorbing) material. The steel structure also causes high vibration in the rotary equipment,” Mr Patel said.  Iffco proposes to put up a fourth DAP/NP stream built on more solid reinforced cement concrete structure. It will also employ the latest ‘dual pipe reactor technology,' as opposed to the present ‘pre-neutraliser reactor' process.  “Our Kandla (Gujarat) plant is already using this technology supplied by Hindustan Dorr-Oliver. Once the fourth stream comes up, we can shut down and retrofit the other three one at a time. Through this, we will able to raise the production capacity here to 30 lt over the next 2-3 years,” he added.  Iffco's Kandla unit produced 23.74 lt of fertilisers in 2009-10. However, Kandla, unlike Paradeep, imports its entire phosphoric acid and ammonia for production of DAP/complexes.
The Paradeep complex, on the other hand, houses the world's largest phosphoric acid and India's biggest sulphuric acid facilities, with capacities of 8.745 lt and 23.10 lt, respectively.  The basic ingredients for phosphoric acid manufacturing are rock phosphate (wholly imported) and sulphuric acid (its raw material, sulphur, is again mostly imported).  During last fiscal, Iffco produced 4.62 lt of phosphoric acid and 14.28 lt of sulphuric acid at Paradeep.  “Today, we cannot operate our phosphoric acid and sulphuric acid facilities at full capacity due to capacity constraints in the DAP/NP line. As a result, we are having to export surplus phosphoric acid to our own Kandla unit. This will change once the DAP/NP expansion happens,” Mr Patel said.  In 2009-10, the Paradeep plant imported 18.55 lt of rock phosphate from Jordan, Vietnam, Morocco and Egypt, while sourcing its sulphur and ammonia mainly from the Gulf countries.  “At full capacity, we will require about 37 lt of rock phosphate. This can be met substantially through our Australian mining joint venture (Legend International, in which Iffco holds 15.2 per cent) that provides for an annual buy-back of 25 lt. We expect supplies to start from this year-end,” he said.  The Paradeep acquisition cost Iffco Rs 2,237 crore. Subsequently, it has invested roughly another Rs 1,500 crore in revamping and infrastructure building in the complex, spread over 1,600 acres and with a captive jetty for unloading imported raw material at the adjacent deep-water port.

February 14, 2010 - A public hearing for environment clearance was held at PPL Township, Paradeep on 14^th February 2010. PPL has proposed the De-bottlenecking, Retrofitting Sulphuric Acid and DAP Expansion Projects - related matters were discussed in the meeting.  The meeting was conducted by State Pollution Control Board in the presence of district administration officials representing the State Government. Representatives of local self Government, local residents and community members representing the cause of general public attended the meeting.  The meeting ended cordially with cooperation extended by all.

February 13, 2010 - Farmers and land losers have demanded the cancellation of the public hearing for Paradeep Phosphates Limited's (PPL) expansion project scheduled to be held on February 14 at the PPL township at Paradeep.  These farmers and land losers have urged that the meeting needs to be conducted at Kujang or Bhutmundei areas to ensure safety and free access for the locals.  The farmers and the land losers feel unsafe to enter the PPL township which is kept strictly prohibited for outsiders by the PPL authorities.  Moreover, the people affected by the PPL's expansion project are living 10 km from the PPL township and it would be inconvenient for them to attend the public meeting if it is conducted at the township.  PPL has decided to expand its 2000 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) sulphuric acid plant to 2400 mtpa and 2400 mtpa DAP (Di-Ammonium Phosphate) plant to 5000 mtpa.  The company proposed to have the environment impact assessment for its expansion project and accordingly, the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) decided to conduct the public hearing on February 14 to seek the opinion of the locals.  Rabindranath Nayak, president of The Welfare Committee of the Farmers-Paradeep has also opposed the public hearing for PPL's expansion project at the PPL township.  He has instead demanded that the public hearing needs to be conducted either at Kujang or Butmundei.  Meanwhile, the farmers and the land losers have submitted a memorandum to the member secretary of OSPCB, the Jagatsinghpur district collector and other higher authorities, seeking change in the venue of the public meeting.  Meanwhile, Pitamber Tarai, convener of the locals Adhibasis has strongly protested the expansion plan of PPL on environmental grounds.  “Fertilizer plants are polluting the waters of the river and the sea by releasing chemical effluents into the water. They are also polluting the air and water with its emissions from the plant”, he alleged.