With visa woes, Hindustan Zinc to send engineers to China for fumer plant training

Hindustan Zinc’s net profit for the quarter was down at Rs 2,583 crore, a dip of 11.8 percent year-on-year (y-o-y).

Hindustan Zinc plans to send its own team for training to China to complete the commissioning of its Fumer plant in Rajasthan, the company has said in its results statement. The company has struggled for more than a quarter to bring Chinese experts to India owing to visa issues.

In 2017, media reports said Hindustan Zinc will set up its first Zinc Fumer Plant in Rajasthan at an estimated expenditure of Rs 570 crore and the formal order for the plant was placed with a Chinese manufacturer. A fumer plant helps recover metal from waste.

“It is very difficult for Chinese engineers to get visa for various reasons, so we are looking to send our engineers there, so they can come back with the commissioning knowledge,” Arun Misra, chief executive officer for Hindustan Zinc told Moneycontrol in a post results interaction call on April 21. He added, “ We decided to take a practical approach to things.”

As an alternative solution, Hindustan Zinc is now working on commissioning with internal experts and online original equipment manufacturer (OEM) support, with a team traveling to China for training in May 2023, the company said in its results statement, adding the commissioning is expected in the current financial quarter.

Hindustan Zinc’s net profit for the quarter was down at Rs 2,583 crore, a dip of 11.8 percent year-on-year (y-o-y). For the full year, net profit was at Rs 10,511 crore, up 9.2 percent y-o-y, led by higher Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and ammortisation or EBITDA partly offset by increase in tax.

Misra said the y-o-y dip in the zinc vertical’s performance for the March quarter was also due to higher commodity prices seen a year ago with the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.