Phillips Carbon Black to build production facility in southern India

Kolkata, India – Phillips Carbon Black Ltd (PCBL) has progressed its plans to establish a greenfield production facility in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Tamil Nadu on 23 Nov for the construction of its fifth manufacturing site.

The “state-of-the-art” plant will have a capacity to produce 147 kilotonnes per annum of carbon black products and will generate 24MW of green power, said PCBL in a 28 Nov statement. 

The facility, it added, will be built based on Industry 4.0 standard and is aimed at strengthening the company’s foothold as “a global player” Construction of he unit is set for completion in 2023.

Unveiling the Rs6 billion (€67 million) project near Chennai in January, PCBL said the plant would manufacture ‘various grades of rubber and speciality carbon blacks’.

The plant is the latest in a series of expansion projects undertaken by the Indian manufacturer. Late last year, PCBL added two speciality carbon production lines at its facility in Palej with a combined capacity of 30ktpa. 

In 2019, the supplier expanded production at its brownfield unit in Mundra, Gujarat by 50ktpa.

In addition, PCBL's innovation centre in Belgium became operational in summer 2020, strengthening the company’s R&D capabilities.

PCBL is estimated to be the largest Indian carbon black producer: with around 570ktpa of production capacity, followed by Birla Carbon, with about 310ktpa.