KOLKATA, India—PCBL Chemical Ltd. (formerly Phillips Carbon Black Ltd.) has selected the location for its sixth manufacturing facility in India.
The greenfield expansion—which will enable PCBL to reach total production of 1 million metric tons per year within three years—will be built on a 116-acre site in Naidupeta, in the southeastern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh, CFO Raj Gupta said on a Jan. 10 earnings call.
Gupta did not provide further details on the capacity or cost of the proposed facility.
Currently, the Indian group's carbon black production capacity stands at 790,000 tons per year, comprising of both specialty and rubber carbon black products.
PCBL has commissioned a 20,000-ton specialty project in Mundra, while a 30,000-ton brownfield expansion in Tamil Nadu is awaiting environmental-authority approval to come online, Gupta said.
Furthermore, a second-phase 60,000-ton expansion in Tamil Nadu will bring the total installed capacity of the group to 880,000 tons within the "next three or four quarters," the CFO added.
Phase I of the Tamil Nadu project in southern India has the nameplate production capacity of 63,000 tons and was commissioned in April 2023.