According to the critics, the expansion plan would push the company back into the red. Commissioned in 1984, the plant is the only fully integrated TiO2 plant in the world. That same year, KMML became the first company in India to produce rutile grade TiO2 pigment under the brand name Kemox RC 822.

The plant has the unique advantage of having mineral beach sand mining, a separation plant, a synthetic rutile plant and a pigment plant at one location. Such a set-up, which has immense potential ofdevelopment, cannot be seen anywhere else in the world, according to KMML managing director PS Nair. Opposing the expansion plan, Congress party leader and trade unionist Vayalar Ravi said as its cost of production was higher, the company would not be able to compete with foreign firms in the export market.

KMML was now using 30,000 tonnes of ilmenite to produce 37,000 tonnes of synthetic rutile, he said, adding that cheap exports of the product would lead to over-exploitation of precious minerals and bringing huge profits for multinationals.

Announcing the expansion, Kerala industries minister Susheela Gopalan had said KMML would soon open up two mineral separation plants, one at Chavara and the other at Alappuzha at an estimated cost of Rs 16 billion. The proposed plant at Chavara will have a 300,000 tonne capacity while the one in Alappuzha will have a 350,000 tonne capacity. The raw materials for the company are collected from the beach sands of the coastal belt spreading from Neendakara in Kollamdistrict to Kayamkulam in Alappuzha district. The ebony black sand is rich in heavy mineral deposits. Mining in the entire area was earlier done by the Indian Rare Earth, but its monopoly was shattered with the entry of KMML.

The beach sand ilmenite contains the highest TD content (58 60 per cent) in the world. It is known as Q grade ilmenite. In India there are four TD pigment manufacturers now and KMML is the only company that produces rutile pigment through chloride process. The other three plants are the Travancore Titanium Products Ltd. in Thiruvananthapuram, the Kilburn Chemicals in Tuticorin and the Kolmark and Chemicals in Calcutta. They produce annuities pigment through the sulphate process.

The main KMML product is TiO2 rutile grade pigment used by makers of paint, printing ink, paper, plastic, rubber, textile and ceramic. The other products are titanium, ilmenite, rutile, bucoxene, zircon, sillimanite, monozite and iron oxide bricks. KMML was registered in 1972 with the main objective ofestablishing a titanium complex.

Within two years of its inception, it was able to reach an agreement with three multinational companies, two from the United States and one from Britain, and get a letter of intent for the production of 48,000 tonnes of titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment through chloride process technology. In 1992, KMML started producing another grade of TiO2 pigment under the new name Kemox RCJ - 800. The same year it launched plastic grade pigment under the name Kemox BC 800 PG. KMML attracted substantial attention that year when it won the first national award for inhouse R&D efforts in industry.

According to managing director Nair, the sales prospects are extremely bright and a recent study of the market undertaken by the company had shown that domestic consumption of TiO2 pigment would increase by 100,000 tonnes annually in the coming three years. The increase in demand was attributed to the potential growth symptoms shown by industries which consume the product.

KMML products likerutile and zircon also have very prospective market at the domestic as well as international level. The company has an installed capacity to produce 22,000 tonnes of TiO2 pigment annually. It had shown an almost 100 per cent capacity utilisation last year.

KMML is now planning for expansion by increasing the production capacity of pigment to 60,000 tonnes and ilminite to 30,000 tonnes a year. The production capacity of other products is also expected to increase considerably.

India Abroad News Service