Aarti Industries had projected Rs. 1,500 crore to Rs. 1,800 crore in the financial year and in Q1 we have already spent Rs. 270 crore, said Suyog Kotecha, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aarti Industries Ltd. at Q1 FY25 Earnings Conference Call on August 12, 2024. 

"I think all major Capex projects remain on track. Our acid unit expansion got commissioned in the last quarter. We are on track to commission our expanded Nitrotoluene and Ethylation capacity towards the end of the current quarter. We will also commission our new Pilot Plant at Zone-IV within this quarter, which will support in accelerating commercialization of new products developed with our R&D and Technology. The larger Cape program at Zone-IV, the new Greenfield site is progressing as per plan. We are expecting phase-wise commissioning from next financial year," Kotecha added.

"Ethylation and Nitrotoluene capacity will get commissioned as per the original timeline indicated which is towards the end of this quarter and the volumes will ramp up gradually over the course of Q3, Q4 and then subsequently in the next financial year. We are expecting somewhere in the range of targeting up to 50% capacity utilization within this financial year and then taking it all the way up to 60 - 80% capacity utilization level in the next financial year. From the volume point of view, they will continue to deliver as per the original plan," Kotecha said.

On time completion of all of these projects, we will fortify within the global chemical value chain, and we will also support higher volume requirements from our customers going forward, commented Kotecha.

According to Kotecha, Aarti Industries is focusing on three themes. The first one is on time at cost execution of all of our expansion projects. We will be adding a sort of completely new series of products based on our Chlorotoluene value chain and also from multipurpose plants at Zone-IV. This will also broaden our product portfolio by going more downstream in the existing value chain.

Second theme is around leveraging our cutting-edge R&D and technology development capabilities to make investments and build portfolios in new sunrise sectors, which have significant growth potential over the coming decade, like circularity, renewable, battery chemistries and technology.

Third may be one of the most important themes around retaining and nurturing the existing culture of founder’s mentality and value orientation of care, integrity, and excellence, I think this has played a very critical role in AI (Artificial Intelligence), delivering significant growth and also shareholder value over the last two decades. As a relatively young organization with an average of 32 years, we not only plan to retain but nurture this and operate with the same ethos which will deliver growth over mid-term-to-long-term.