Praj Industries to set up 3 plants

Praj Industries, the Pune-based engineering company, will set up 3 manufacturing units this fiscal for its both existing and new businesses, said chief executive & managing director Shashank Inamdar.

The company had last year announced it would venture into new verticals such as waste water treatment, customised equipment and heat exchanges for fertiliser, chemical, pharma and food & beverage industries.

Praj is involved in manufacturing and installing equipment for production of ethanol.

“We will spend Rs50 crore on 2 plants for customised equipment and performance-enhancers, which will be commissioned this fiscal itself,” Inamdar said.

Though the company is yet to finalise the location for its customised equipment plant, the consumables facility will come up near Pune.

The third facility will be through the shifting of one of its existing plants near Pune. “We have not yet decided the capacity or how much we hope to spend there,” Inamdar said.

With the commissioning of the first plant, Praj’s capacity will move from under 12,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 15,000 tpa. Inamdar said Praj has cash of Rs388 crore on its books and no debt. “This will help us fund our capacity expansion internally,” Inamdar said. 

On its plans for waste water treatment, Inamdar said the company is awaiting the results of a study on the  same by a global consulting agency.

Praj currently has orders worth Rs700 crore, of which 45% are from overseas.

For the June quarter, Praj’s net sales and net profit dropped 26% and 59%, respectively from the same period last year to Rs93.7 crore and Rs10.4 crore, which Inamdar attributed to a lull in orders.