• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Six cos keen to partner HPC in `de-inking' project

Badal Sanyal

KOLKATA, July 11

FIVE global companies and a leading domestic engineering outfit have evinced interest in joining hands with the State-owned Hindusthan Paper Corporation for setting up a greenfield `de-inking' waste-paper project, which is to be set up at Kochi.

In response to a global tender floated recently by the corporation, overseas giants are reported to have submitted turn-key offers through their associate companies in India. The Mumbai-based Hindustan Dorr Oliver is the lone domestic outfit which has ma de a bid through IECA, Mekkat Pvt Ltd of Kochi.

Sources indicate that Vaith Paper Fibre System of Germany has submitted its bid through Larsen & Toubro of Chennai, while E & M Lamart of France has utilised its links with CP Engineering (I) Pvt of Chennai.

On behalf on Hansai Paper Company Ltd of Korea, the Delhi-based Samsung Corporation has submitted a bid, while Marubeni Corporation of Japan has submitted its bid through Marubeni India, Mumbai. Mesto Paper and Mechano Paper Machines Ltd has submitted it s bid through Mechano Paper Machines Ltd in Kolkata.

To improve the response further, the corporation is now examining the prospects of revising the conversion capacity of the proposed plant from 100 tonne per day (tpd) to 200 tpd.

Mr Raji Philip, Chairman and Managing Director of HPC, said here on Wednesday that the conversion of waste-paper to fresh pulp through the de-inking process, would help large and medium paper mills minimise their dependence on forest wood. In addition to this, each mill would be able to save on the energy cost.

Mr Philip said the proposed de-inking of waste-paper project at Kochi would be financed by Kerala Newsprint Ltd (KNL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HPC. The resultant pulp would be used by KNL.

Well-known private companies would be engaged on a turn-key basis to set up and run the project with the rider that they would be paid against production performance.

Mr Philip said that HPC had plans to set up similar waste-paper de-inking projects nearer to some major ports so that they could use imported waste-paper without any additional transportation cost.

He said the way the cost of power was increasing and the growing uncertainty surrounding the availability of forest raw materials, conversion of pulp from waste-paper would be beneficial to HPC.