Salt refinery plans $130m investment

KARACHI: Hub Salt Refinery is all set to invest $130 million in establishing its fourth manufacturing plant near the coastal belt of Balochistan to meet the world’s growing demand of the mineral substance, its chief executive Ismail Suttar said.
Suttar, in an interview with The News, said the company is already producing a variety of edible and organic grades of salt for domestic and industrial use. It has a total installed capacity of 620 tons/day.
The major industrial consumers include chloralkali, pharmaceutical, textile dyeing, leather processing, oil drilling and petrochemical industries.
“With the new plant, the company can export $500 million worth of salt every year around the world,” Suttar said. “The project will have a foreign partnership with the local management.”
Currently, the company’s annual sales stand at Rs1.5 billion; 70 percent of incomes come from exports.
He said once the plant is built a dedicated jetty to export bulk salt will also be established.
Pakistan possesses huge reserves of all three grades of salt: rock salt, lake salt and sea (solar) salt.
“The international demand of salt is around 80 million tons and Pakistan can earn huge foreign exchange if it only meets the yearly shortfall of seven to eight million tons,” CE Hub Salt said.
Mexico and Australia are largely meeting the world’s demand. “Pakistan can capture the market share if policy makers think beyond textile and give attention to other potential-laden sectors, which can generate huge foreign exchange for the country,” he said.
He pointed lack of logistics and road network as the major reasons, making the exports unviable.
The company has been operating since 1985 with its plant at Hub Industrial Trading Estate. In 2008, it ventured in two more plants in Tharparkar. One of which was built in Ankerio, four kilometers from Rann of Kutch, with the investment of Rs300 million. It is solely catering to industries. The other plant is 80-kilometer away from the Islam Kot at Mukhai Salt Lake.
Suttar said building plants close to a lake and a mine helps the company to reduce cost of production and transportation.
Hub Salt has also built more than 80 organic salt therapy rooms around the globe, including Pakistan.