Balrampur Chini forays into eco-friendly plastic production with revenue potential of ₹1,500-2,000 crore

In conversation with CNBC-TV18 sharing details of the new venture, Avantika Saraogi, Executive Director of Balrampur stated the company will set up a global scale facility of 75,000 tonnes per annum to produce PLA which will be housed adjacent to the company's existing sugar plant. This will provide a lot of saving on transportation.

“The biggest silver bullet that we have is that we have our own biogas for power. The market right now is 300,000 to 400,000 tonne, but this is not even 1% of total plastic consumption in the world. So the headroom is immense is what I would say,” she noted.

Through the investment, BCML also aims to capitalise on the new schemes introduced in the interim Budget 2024 for bio-manufacturing and bio-foundry,

Saraogi pointed out that PLA will prove economical to consumers and given its superior properties compared to regular plastic and the ban on single use plastic in the country, PLA competes more with other products such as cardboard, glass etc.

Balrampur reported solid earnings for the third quarter ended December 2023 with profit surging 97% year-on-year (YoY) to ₹91 crore. The company noted improved sugarcane supply and anticipates a 10% increase in crushing this season, with higher sugar recovery compared to the previous season.

The company, which has a market capitalisation of ₹7,665 crore, has seen its shares gain 5% over the last year.