Date:10/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/10/stories/2008071056211900.htm

Business

Total, Vinergy form JV

Special Correspondent

To manufacture and market bitumen products

To invest
Rs. 100 crore in
the next 3 years
Commissions plant at Jodhpur in Rajasthan

NEW DELHI: International oil and gas giant Total of France on Wednesday announced the setting up of a joint venture with Vinergy International for manufacturing and marketing world-class value added bitumen products for India. The joint venture will witness an investment of Rs. 100 crore during the next three years.

Making this announcement here, Total’s India Country Chairman, Christian Chammas, told newsmen that the 50:50 joint venture, Total Vinergy Bitumen India, had already commissioned a plant at Jodhpur in Rajasthan with an investment of about Rs. 25 crore and was in the process of selecting sites for setting up units in East, South and West of the country.

Vinergy Managing Director, Mukul Agarwal, said the four plants would have a bitumen manufacturing capacity of three lakh tonnes a year. Bitumen is used in the construction of roads and highways.

“The quality of bitumen being produced at these plants would be much higher than what was available. We are going to introduce the latest technology that would ensure that the life of roads would increase by 3-4 years,” Mr. Chammas said.

The joint venture will provide high quality bitumen and modified bituminous products to the road construction industry, something that is now not available. Mr. Aggarwal said they planned to commission one plant a year adding that the country had a demand of 4.1 million tonnes of bitumen as against a supply of 3.7 million tonnes. The joint venture is targeting $50 million in sales in the first year of operation.