Haycarb PLC, the Activated Carbon Solutions (ACS) firm and part of the Hayleys Group is looking to expand its capacity in Indonesia and in India whilst enhancing its value additions in existing locations, officials said.
“The first option will be to look into viable joint ventures to purchase plants and upgrade/expand to suit our systems and quality standards,” Rajitha Kariyawasan, Managing Director Haycarb PLC told the Business Times.
He noted that the demand is strong for activated carbon and ACS, which is primarily driven by the growing needs in water and air purification whilst attractive new application segments are emerging. “The fundamentals for this business are good in terms of the market potential,” he added.
While the challenge in this business is mainly the shortages and the resultant sharp increase in coconut charcoal prices worldwide, Mr. Kariyawasam explained that as a short-term strategy the company has adopted an aggressive purchasing program to position itself as a strong buyer whilst strengthening relationships in the supply chain. “We continuously build and maintain inventory, and as a result we’ve not defaulted customers even at the peak of the raw material crisis,” he said.
The company reported revenue growth of 21% to Rs 3.8 billion for the six months ending 30th September 2011, with stable demand in global markets and the company’s reliable supply stream of high quality carbons with a product mix of value-added carbons protecting its top and bottom line in a period of narrowing margins.
He added that in a bid to combat the rising charcoal prices, Haycarb is stressing the need and is also successful in passing the majority of the raw material impact to the customers.
He also said that Haycarb is looking to continually upgrade its plants and systems to meet the requirements of growing needs in quality in special applications to maintain and augment its brand image.
Haycarb also sees upward potential in their purifications systems business with the boom in tourism in Sri Lanka along with large infra structure development projects. “We have signed a memorandum of understanding with a world’s leading water purification systems company,” Mr. Kariyawasam said, explaining that while Haycarb is exploring other projects, they have been successful in winning the contract for water purification systems in the Pasikuda Tourism development project. “A new joint venture involving Puritas (Pvt) Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Haycarb PLC, and Veolia Water, India, had been awarded the contract for a large waste water treatment facility for the National Holiday Resort, Passikudah, on Design-Build and Operate basis,” he said.
He added that Haycarb’s regeneration business through the subsidiary in Thailand doubled its capacity this year. “We’re also looking to expand this model in to other countries,” he noted.
He also noted that Haycarb is eyeing carbon joint ventures using alternate raw materials such as coal and wood. The company also wants to increase its accessibility to faster growing international markets such as India and China whilst maintaining its traditional markets in the West with a key emphasis on value addition targeting entry into new application segments.
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