Goa Carbon Announces $175 Million Petroleum Coke Growth Plan

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Goa Carbon Limited (Panjim, Goa) announced this month that it plans to invest $175 million to develop a new calcined petroleum coke (CPC) manufacturing facility; expand a unit in Paradeep, Orissa; and set up power plants at three manufacturing units in the country. The firm is conducting a techno-feasibility study for the proposed plant and is reviewing techno-feasibility reports for a capacity expansion and cogeneration at its existing facilities.

Goa Carbon plans to invest $125 million to set up a CPC manufacturing unit with a capacity between 350,000 tons per year and 500,000 tons per year, along with a 50-megawatt (MW) power generation plant. The company is considering Dhamra, Orissa and Gujarat for the plant's location. It is also looking to invest $25 million to expand the capacity of the Paradeep facility from the current 120,000 tons per year to 220,000 tons per year. The firm also plans to set up power plants at its manufacturing units in Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Paradeep. Goa Carbon has earmarked $25 million to set up power plants with capacities of 11 MW in Paradeep, 5 MW in Goa and 2 MW in Bilaspur. The company currently has an installed capacity of 240,000 tons per year and operates at a utilization rate of 90%.

CPC is used in the manufacture of anodes for the titanium, steel and aluminum smelting industries. Domestic CPC manufacturers hopeful of cashing in on the projected increase in aluminum and steel requirements are firming up plans to set up new manufacturing facilities or to expand present production capacities. In July 2007, Rain Commodities (Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh) acquired CII Carbon LLC (Kingwood, Texas) to become the world's largest producer of CPC with a capacity of 2.44 million tons per year and a 49-MW cogeneration plant. The firm is looking to undertake CPC manufacturing projects in India and in China, where it is likely to set up a unit with a capacity of 300,000 to 500,000 tons per year.

CPC is obtained through calcinations, or thermal decomposition of petroleum coke, also known as petcoke. Production of petcoke, a byproduct of oil refineries, is largely influenced by production levels of crude oil, the quality of extracted and refined oil, and the demand for refined products. Increasing global demand for gasoline and strict environmental regulations governing the production of highly refined fuels are expected to boost long-term production of petcoke. However, the upward trend in crude oil prices is bound to linearly affect the price of CPC, which currently costs about $500 per ton. Furthermore, China has restricted CPC exports through the imposition of taxes, leading to a shortfall in supply while demand continues to remain high, especially in the Middle East and Asia. Global consumption of CPC in the aluminum industry is currently estimated to be 12 million tons per year. There is a 2 million-ton-per-year gap in demand and supply in the global CPC market whereas there is no such mismatch in India.

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