AV Birla group product portfolio - 3

Our Corporate Bureau
31 July 1999

Mining
Essel Mining & Industries, an AV Birla group company, is one of India's largest private sector iron ore mining companies. The company, which has been operating at Barbil in Orissa since 1970, has large reserves of high quality iron ore with a very high ferrous content. At its crushing facilities, the company produces sized and calibrated iron ore suitable for sponge iron and pig iron plants in India and overseas.

Oleo chemicals, fatty acids, glycerine
Pan Century Oleo Chemicals, an AV Birla group venture in Malaysia promoted in 1991 produces high purity fatty acids and glycerine. Its product range includes caprylic-capric acid, lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, split / distilled fatty acid, glycerine. All products manufactured in the plant are 'kosher' and 'halal' certified, according to the group.

The company's fatty acids are used as raw materials for soaps, detergents and cosmetics, in the production of plasticisers and as additives for plastics, rubber and textiles, and in paints and surface coatings. Glycerine is used in foods, oral care products, tobacco, drugs, cosmetics, and alkyd resins.

Pan Century Oleo Chemicals' 85,000 tpa oleo chemicals plant uses technology from Badger Engineers, a part of the Raytheon group of the US. The main plant and machinery were supplied by Extraction De Smet AG of Belgium, and the hydrogenation plant by Buss AG of Switzerland.

Palm oil refining
Pan Century Edible Oils, the AV Birla group company in Malaysia, is said to be the world's largest palm oil refinery at a single location. The plant processes over 1 million tonnes of palm oil annually, or nearly 13 per cent of Malaysia's palm oil production, according to the group.

The company's products include refined palm oil, olein and palm stearin. Its downstream integrated facilities produce fatty acids, glycerine, soap noodle, and other speciality products.