Manali Petrochemicals Limited (MPL) is expanding its petrochemical portfolio by planning Propylene Glycol (PG) and Polyester Glycol (PG) projects. "We look specifically at some of the new projects which we have recently announced and have started executing," R. Chandrasekar, Managing Director, MPL said while speaking at Analyst/Investor Meet.

"The first one is the Propylene Glycol (PG) plants with an initial phase one capacity of 32,000 metric ton per annum (TPA). The model investment is for Rs. 94 crore with a 50:50 debt equity ratio and has an IRR of 20.7%. The predominant market segment we will be covering with the expanded capacity of PG will be the food and beverage and pharmaceutical sectors," Chandrasekhar added.

The company also moves on to Polyester Polyol (PP). “Two such plants are planned and one is already completed with the 4,150 MT per annum capacity and the second one it's an ongoing project we'll be focusing on construction and appliances and elastomers specifically with polyester polyol coupled with the captive consumption requirement. A little bit on the West India greenfield expansion," Chandrasekhar informed.  

Meanwhile, the board has recently approved an expansion into West India to cater to the requirements of the local market. “Initially, we will target 30,000 tons per annum of polyols with an investment model of Rs. 130 plus crores and IRR of 30% is projected with the five-year payback. Predominantly, Manali, from Chennai, will be supplying the requirements for this polyol capacity coupled with a bit of imports," Chandrasekhar revealed.

The company has undertaken some of the smaller but notable projects in the recent past. “We are sourcing renewable energy through a hybrid power system, catering to 68% of our overall requirements. We are strengthening our R&D team. We are strengthening our marketing team. And we move on from fossil fuel to RLNG for our plant to operations that will completely eliminate usage of furnace oil in our operations. We have sourced additional storage capacity for PO plus polyols as well and we are working on quite a bit of optimizing the overheads in our plant operations," Chandrasekhar added.