By IANS,
Kolkata : Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) is trying to enhance its focus on the eastern market along with widening its product range by including low-density polyethylene (LDPE), said a company official Friday. It is also in talks with Reliance Industries Limited for market segregation.
“Fundamentally we are trying to move the market to the east and try selling less in the west. By selling in the west we lose $60 per tonne because of freight charges. We are the market leader in the east with 50 percent market share. Why not increase it to 80 percent?” HPL managing director P.S. Bhattacharyya said here.
In order to attain its goal in the east, the company was in dialogue with RIL for market segmentation.
“We have a share of about 15 percent in the west. But what is the need? We can increase our share here. We are in talks with RIL about market segmentation so that we may concentrate in the east while they in the west.”
Bhattacharyya said the company needs to widen its product range to lift its performance.
“We lose a part of the market just because we don’t have some products in our range like LDPE. We also are losing the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) markets in spite of having them in our product line,” Bhattacharya said.
“We wish to have LDPE in our product chain. Since we do not manufacture it, we are looking to import it,” he said.
The company which has an accumulated loss of Rs.1,000 crore is looking to make some profit depending upon the condition of the market.
“We have registered a loss of Rs.247 crore in Q1 with Q2 also reflecting a similar figure. However, we might make a profit in Q3 and Q4 depending upon how the market behaves,” said Bhattacharya.
The HPL is mulling a Rs.500 crore to Rs.600 crore expansion plan.
“We are mulling three new projects under our expansion plan which will cost Rs.500 to Rs.600 crore. The first is a butyne1 separation project. With this project becoming functional we will have sufficient quantity of the chemical which we now have to import. The other two plans are still in the conceptual stage,” said Bhattacharya.