Chinese imports hit Travancore Titanium: Stocks worth Rs 26 cr piled up: European Union.
The state-owned Travancore Titanium Products Ltd (TTP), the leading manufacturer of anatase grade titanium dioxide in the country, is sitting on a pile of unsold stocks worth Rs 26 crore.
Heavy taxation combined with large-scale import of the product from China are the main reasons for the plight of the company, according to Mr KP Shankaradas, President of the TTP Employees Union.
He told newspersons here that while the company could sell 1,300 tons of titanium dioxide in October, the offtake till date in the current month was only 160 tonnes.
Following the cut in the import duty on titanium dioxide, China has been exporting large quantities of the product to India and selling it at a much lower price than that of TTP. While the Chinese product was available at Rs 62000 per tonne in the Mumbai market, TTP’s product was being sold at Rs 87000 per tonne, he said.
TTP’s product was also non-competitive vis-à-vis other domestic manufactures of titanium dioxide as Kilburn, and this was mainly owing to the “double taxation” that was being subjected TTP, courtesy the Kerala State Industrial Products Trading Company ( KSIPTC) acting as the intermediary marketing for the company, Mr Shankaradas said.
While the other private sector companies were paying a total of Rs 10200 per tonne as tax, which TTP paying Rs 18000, he pointed out. This anomaly could be rectified to a large extent if the intermediary marketing done away with, he said.
Besides, the company should bring down the cost of production by accepting the offer of all the employees who had applied for voluntary retirement.
Also, new appointments should be kept in abeyance till the company overcame the difficulties facing it had been, he said.
He also warned that the Rs 110 crore project aimed at checking water pollution would lead to the collapse of the company. Instead, the management should think of implementing the suggestion by the National Institute of Oceanography effluent to carry the 750 metres away into the sea as much this would not cost the company, he said.