Oriental Carbon & Chemicals Limited (OCCL) is planning to commission Insoluble Sulphur capacity expansion by November 2021.

The expansion of Insoluble Sulphur capacity by 11,000 MT will happen in 2 phases of 5,500 MT each. Phase 1 of 5,500 MT of Insoluble Sulphur Line and 42,000 MT of Sulphuric Acid Line at Dharuhera is expected to be commissioned by November 2021.

The capital investment would be around Rs. 216 crore including working capital of Rs. 7.5 crore. The project is proposed to be funded by a mix of loans and internal accruals with a debt equity ratio of 2:1.  

Arvind Goenka, Promoter and Managing Director, Oriental Carbon & Chemicals Limited said, "The company is in the process of starting trial runs of its upcoming Insoluble Sulphur plant at Dharuhera and we expect to commission the project in November 2021."

"The Indian tyre market is witnessing capacity expansions undertaken by tyre manufacturers and new products have been introduced over the past few months. Indian tyre market offtake appears to be optimistic. With increasing radialization in LCV and TBR tyre consumers, on account of superior mileage and fuel efficiency will drive large consumption of insoluble sulphur. We expect this momentum to sustain going ahead led by the normalization of operations in most markets and the upcoming festive season in India," said Goenka.

"With the completion of our capacity expansion, we are optimistic of gaining new orders on the back of our long standing relationship with our customers. We are on a strong footing to deliver sustainable and profitable long term growth with our dominant position in the industry, being the only domestic player producing IS with domestic market share of around 60% and around 10% global market share, and a marquee customer base of 40+ tyre OEMs,” added Goenka.

Insoluble Sulphur is sold under the brand DIAMOND SULF and is used as vulcanising agent in application where sulphur loading levels are required above the sulphur solubility rating of particular elastomers. DIAMOND SULF is offered in various grades to satisfy diverse compounding requirements majorly for the tyre industry.