Engro Polymer to invest $9m to upgrade Karachi plant

Plans to shift towards pure oxygen-based VCM technology

KARACHI: Engro Polymer and Chemicals Limited has announced an investment of $9 million to install fuel and cost-efficient technology at its Karachi plant.

The board of directors, in its meeting, approved a capital expenditure of $9 million to shift towards pure oxygen-based vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) technology, which is expected to reduce raw material consumption by approximately 2%, stated Company Secretary Hussain Hasanali in a notification to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday.



“Since its establishment in 2008, EPCL has remained engulfed in challenges because the enterprise required high expertise,” said JS Global Head of Corporate Sales Syed Atif Zafar, He said, “The company had to struggle immensely to enter a profitability stage, which it did not achieve until 2013-14.”

Despite news of investment from the company’s side, Engro Polymer’s share price fell Rs0.79 and closed at Rs39.94 with 5.76 million shares changing hands at the PSX, while, the KSE-100 Index closed 97 points down at 40,771 points. Engro Polymer faced a number of problems like plants going out of order and a plant once caught fire too, Zafar said, adding, “The company has come through a long way,” he said.



First, the company announced expansion plans and now it is moving towards cost-efficient measures, which is a sign of robust stability. In December 2017, EPCL laid forward its plan to expand its production plant of PVC - an end product of the company - which is used for making numerous plastic products, including credit cards, toys and construction materials like water and sewerage pipes.