Century Enka's new plant to begin by December

Kolkata, Jun 28: B K Birla group company Century Enka Ltd today said its new Rs 160 crore plant at Rajashree Polyfil (Bharuch) is expected to be commissioned by December 2006.

The plant will be capable of producing 8,000 tonne of nylon tyre cord fabric (NTCF) per annum.

"The project is progressing according to schedule," Century Enka chairman B K Birla said.

Last year, the company has invested Rs 100 crore in expanding the capacity of its polyester partially oriented yarn (POY) plant at Rajashree Polyfil, Bharuch.

"The capacity of the unit has gone up to 81,000 tonne per annum from 37,900 tonne per annum," he said.

"With the new NTCF plant, the company's total NTCF production capacity will increase to 22,000 tonne per annum from the present level of 14,000 tonne per annum," Birla said.

"It would help us in capturing at least 25 per cent market share," he added.

Century Enka's net profit has came down to Rs 17.59 crore in 2005-06 compared to Rs 52.56 crore registered in 2004-05.

However, the income of the company has gone up to Rs 1005.03 crore in 2005-06 against Rs 964.09 crore registered in the previous year.

"Net profit has come down due to high raw material prices. Even crude oil prices was gone up in 2005-06," Birla said.

"We are optimistic about the future outlook of the company.

However,the performance will remain be affected until the anomaly in excise duty structure is corrected by the Centre," he said.

UNI