Nalco plans huge investment in R & D facility

Kolkata: NLC Nalco India Limited (NIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of speciality chemicals, equipment and water solutions company Nalco, is planning major investments this year to improve its Research and Development facility in India.

Globally the company has only seven R&D units.

In India, it have only two chemical manufacturing units, with the Konnagar plant having a greater capacity than the Pune unit and churning out more than 11000 ton of specialty chemicals per annum.

Speaking at the sidelines of an interactive session organised by Indo American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), Alok Kumar Bhadra, country marketing manager of NIL, said that the company is planning to expand the infrastructure of the Konnagar plant which works as an extension of the Singapore R&D plant, which serves as the hub for Asia Pacific region.

The major focus is to develop the R&D infrastructure in India, he said.

However, he refused to give out the investment figures for the upgradation project, saying that its classified information.

However he said that globally more than 5 percent of investment goes into up gradation and expansion of the Nalco's R&D facility every year, he added.

The major investments in research will be on water treatment chemicals, oilfield sector chemicals and paper-based chemical. The company recorded a global turnover of $3.7 billion recording a 25 percent growth on year-on-year basis, he said.