Our Corporate Bureau

Mumbai, July 12

ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Ltd, a subsidiary of ITC Ltd, has embarked upon a programme to modernise its pulp mill at an outlay of about Rs. 227 crore. The company has also made a recent foray into the Chinese and South African markets to consolidate its position in the export front. The company has made a turnaround in the year 2000-2001 posting a net profit of Rs.34.89 crore against a loss of Rs.32.12 crore last year.

"Given the quality of turnaround achieved by the company and its strategy of enhancing its competitiveness through focused product development, sustained world class quality and cost management, ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards will emerge as a world class leader in the South Asian region in the paperboards segment," the company’s latest annual report said.

The turnaround was made possible by upgrading the product mix to high value paperboards of international quality, deriving economies of scale through effective technology absorption and full capacity utilisation of machines, and realising cost efficiencies through consistently high resource productivity and energy management. The 1.2 lakh tonne capacity paperboard machine presently operates at a capacity utilisation of 106 per cent.

Despite the continuing oversupply in the paper industry, sales during the year increased to 204,649 tonnes (Rs.611 crore) from 179,715 tonnes (Rs.444 crore). Sales of the value added products grew to 30,233 tonnes from 15,183 tonnes last year.

Exports has also doubled from 19,896 tonnes (Rs.42.82 crore) last year to 39,228 tonnes (Rs.94.41 crore).