Dear Shareholders,
As you are all aware, the year 2012-13 was another challenging year for
the global economy. The debt-repayment crisis in Eurozone dominated
world headlines, particularly in the middle of 2012 as Greece
dangerously tottered towards bankruptcy. While the heads of governments
in Europe did a commendable job of ensuring that the
Euro did not collapse, the crisis again returned in March 2013 with
banks in Cyprus. One bright spot was the rebounding of the US economy,
led by a resurgent corporate sector. Brent crude oil prices remained
over US$ 100 per barrel for most part of 2012, averaging US$ 111.67 per
barrel, slightly higher than an average of US$ 111.26 per barrel in
2011.
In India, the year 2012-13 was a year that saw growth come down to 5
per cent, the lowest in the last decade. The Indian Rupee continued to
weaken against the US Dollar, breaching the psychological barrier of
57.12 on 22nd June 2012. Inflation continued to cast a long shadow on
the monetary policy of the government.
In spite of the strong global and domestic headwinds, the Company has
delivered an outstanding performance for the year. The total
production during the year was 1,06,662 MT. The plant achieved a
capacity utilisation of 91.86 per cent during the year. For the first
time, we crossed the RUPEES ONE THOUSAND CRORE milestone - our Revenue
from Operations (Gross) for the year was Rs. 1067.18 crores compared to Rs.
955.37 crores for the previous year, an improvement of 11.7 per cent.
The outlook for the PA industry continues to remain positive with new
application areas being discovered. In spite of its phenomenal growth
in the last decade, India still has one of the lowest per capita
consumption of plastics in the world. There is a tremendous scope of
use of plastics and polymers in industries like infrastructure,
irrigation, electrical, paints, pigments and many more. End-users of
all these industries are making substantial investments to ramp up
their capacities in anticipation of higher demands. This augurs
extremely well for the PA industry in general and IG Petrochemicals in
particular. Our brown-field expansion of an additional 50,000 MT
capacity is progressing on schedule, and we are expecting this to
commence in the second quarter on this year.
We are also looking at opportunities where we can forward integrate
processes and align our additional capacities to create more value
added products. Not only would this result in mitigation of risks, but
would also open up new avenues for growth and contribute handsomely to
the bottom-line of the Company.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude
to all employees of the Company for their sincere efforts and
hard-work. I would also like to thank all our suppliers, customers,
bankers and investors for their trust and faith in the Company.
Thank you,
Yours sincerely,
MM Dhanuka
Chairman
