New Pastures

New Pastures Hansavivek BALLARPUR PAPER, which has already expanded and diversified its activities in various fields, is further widening its horizons. It is joining hands with a Dubai firm Oilfields Supply Center to form a new joint- venture company under the name Dubai Chemical Corporation which will import hydrochloric acid in hulk from Ballarpur and sell it, as also other chemicals required by the oil industry, in Duhai and other countries of the United Aral) Emirates. The share capital of this company will he UAE Dir- hams one million, of which three-fourths will be subscribed by OSC and one- fourth by Ballarpur. Ballarpur is already manufacturing caustic soda and chlorine at its plants at Yammanagar and Ballarpur and is also setting up a new unit with a daily capacity of 100 tonnes at Karwar, a virgin port, where bulk storage facilities for hydrochloric acid arc being installed with a view to exporting this chemical in shiploads to Gulf countries. Ballarpur has made arrangements to meet the requirements of coinmqn salt, the basic raw material for its Karwar plant, from Saurashtra. Since Karwar is not connected by rail and transport of large quantities of salt by road is not possible, the salt is intended to be moved by sea. The company's management says that due to decline in coastal shipping in recent years, coupled with a reluctance on the part of shipowners to accept salt, a corrosive cargo, the regular flow of raw material can be maintained only by ships owned and operated by the company. It is, therefore, proposed to purchase vessels for this purpose. Further, it is stated that if any such vessel returns unladen from Karwar to Saurashtra, or if it is not otherwise suitably deployed, the cost of transporting salt will increase enormously. It will, therefore, be necessary for the vessel to be utilised for the carriage of other cargoes as well. This will thus enable Ballarpur, a unit belonging to a 'large" industrial house, to enter shipping.