Matix Fertilisers to invest ₹7,500 crore to double urea production capacity

Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals plans to double its urea production capacity by investing around ₹7,500 crore to expand its market share.

The West Bengal-based fertilisers marker aims to increase the production capacity through a brownfield expansion at its urea plant at Panagarh Industrial Park. The current production capacity is 1.27 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

“We are currently the second largest private sector urea producer in the country in terms of production capacity. In the last financial year we did 118 per cent capacity utilisation and produced 1.5 million tonnes. And even in the current year, we are operating at a daily capacity utilisation of close to about 112-113 per cent. We are able to produce a lot more than what the plant was designed for due to the operational excellence that we have been able to achieve,” Chairman Nishant Kanodia told businessline.

Doubling capacity

“We are looking at doubling the capacity at the same site. This project is under development. We have made a lot of progress by starting some works. We are awaiting approval from the Department of Fertilisers of the Government of India for the expansion. Once we get the approval, we should be ready to start construction and make sure the plant is up within the next 30 months,” Kanodia added.

Domestic urea production stood at around 31.4 million tonnes last fiscal, and Matix Fertilisers had a market share of around 4.8 per cent. It enjoys a market share of around 20 per cent in eastern India.

Kanodia said since the company is doubling the production capacity, its market share will increase going forward.

“For the brownfield expansion of the urea plant, we are looking at about ₹7,500 crore investment. It will be financed by a combination of debt and equity,” he added.

The company’s revenue from operation was around ₹6,900 crore in FY24 compared to ₹5,700 crore in FY23.