EPCL’s plant begins operation

KARACHI: Engro Polymer and Chemicals Limited (EPCL) on Monday announced that commercial operation date of the new PVC plant of 100,000 tons capacity has been achieved.

EPCL had secured $35 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to fund the expansion plans for its PVC production plant. The IFC financing is a part of the initial Rs10.3 billion expansion plan announced earlier, out of which Rs5.4 billion was already raised by the company from the issue of right shares.

The new production line of PVC would cater to its rising demand, which surged significantly mainly due to a boom in construction activities. With a new PVC plant of 100,000 tones capacity, the total production stands at 295,000 tons per annum, while production of VCM (raw material) would increase by 50,000 tons through debottlenecking of the existing plant.

EPCL, a 56.2 percent owned subsidiary of Engro Corporation is the only fully integrated chlorvinyl chemical complex in Pakistan and also produces poly-vinyl chloride, caustic soda, sodium hypochlorite, hydrochloric acid and other chlorine by-products. The business was setup as a state-of-the-art plant in 1997, as a 50:50 joint venture, with Mitsubishi and Asahi Glass with Asahi subsequently divesting its shareholding in 2006.