Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited (RCF) was incorporated on March 6, 1978 as a Chemical Manufacturer. The Company is engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of fertilizers and industrial chemicals. With 20 operating plants in Trombay and 5 large plants at its Thal Fertilizer Unit, the Company produces Methanol, Sodium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrite, Ammonium Bicarbonate, Methylamines, Dimethylformamide (DMF) and Dimethylacetamide (DMAc).
A 5000 MTPA plant of the company was set up at Thal, which commissioned in year 1990. RCF bagged an award for social forestry of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the year 1990-91. In January of the year 1991, an agreement was made with M/s Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan to provide technical personnel for operational and supervisory services in connection with pre-commissioning; commissioning and test run of Jamuna Fertilizer Project in Bangladesh. Under the Technical Assistance Agreement with M/s. Haldor Topsoe, the work for Auto Optimisation of four critical parameters in Ammonia Plants by installation of Advanced Control System has been completed in March of the year 1992. The Pilot Plant of 1.0 MT/Hr capacity was installed, commissioned and operated successfully during the year 1993 to produce NP 27:9:0 and 19:19:0 grades of Urea Nitric Phosphate and in 1994, RCF had commissioned a Dimethyl Acetamide Plant at Thal. During the year 1995, the company had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, a premier Agricultural Research Organisation for conducting extensive joint research and extension services in the field of crop performance, yields, increasing efficiency of fertilizers etc.
The Purge Gas recovery unit of the company was commissioned in December of the year 1996. The Joint Venture Agreement with the Oman Oil Company and KRIBHCO, for setting up a Fertilizer Complex in Oman was signed during April of the year 1997. During the year 1999, liquid micronutrients were launched by the company under the brand name of MICROLA and also in the same year, RCF had signed a MoU with UCB S.A. Chemicals, Belgium to produce 20,000 MTPA of Methylamines and its derivatives at Thal. The Company was presented by Dr. R J Rathi Award for Environment Pollution Control in the year 2000. In the year 2001, RCF had shutdown two of its plants at Trombay because of natural gas shortages. Also in the identical year of 2001, the company had submitted Expression of Interest to acquire the fertilizer plants of SAIL and Pradeep Phosphate.
The unit of the company situated at Raigad district received ISO14001 certification in June of the year 2001 and also obtained OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health & Safety Assessment Series) in September of the year 2004. The Company had signed MoU with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd during the year 2005 and also the unit received the Green Touch Foundation safety gold award for the identical year 2005. The R&D center of the company had developed micro nutrient fertilizers in tablet form for prime agriculture crops, horticultural plants, orchids, floriculture etc during the year 2005-06. RCF and Gas Authority of India Limited signed a MoU to set up coal gasification project at Talcher in Orissa during December 2007. The Company and Australia-based Rapid Building Systems (RBS) inked MoU with Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) in February 2008, for supply of technology, licence and critical equipment for manufacturing fiberglass-reinforced gypsum load-bearing wall panels from phosphogypsum.
Offer for Sale of 2,75,84,405 equity shares of Company, representing 5% of the total share capital of the Company by the Government of India, was made in June 2017 in line with the directive of SEBI to maintain at least 25% of minimum public shareholding. The offer was opened on 29th June 2017 (for Non-Retail Investors) and on 30th June 2017 (for Retails Investors and for Non-Retail Investors who choose to carry forward their bids) through a separate, designated window of BSE Ltd. and The National Stock Exchange of India Limited. The Floor Price for the Offer was fixed at Rs 74.25 per equity share of the Company. Consequent upon sale of 2,75,84,405 Equity Shares by Government of India, the equity holding of Government of India in your Company stands reduced to 75% of paid up capital from 80%.
In FY19, the Company has set-up and commissioned Gas Turbine Generator (GTG) of 2 x 25 MW along with Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) of 2 x 100 MTPH capacity in April 2018. As a part of this project, some of the steam turbine drives are replaced with motors. The estimated energy saving is 0.35 Gcal/MT of Urea and the project cost is about Rs363.80 Crore. Energy saving of about 0.30 Gcal/MT of Urea has been achieved so far and 0.05 Gcal/MT will be achieved by Dec-2019 after installation of new motor driven ARC-IV compressor.
In FY 2018-19, installation of Vortex Mixer with conversion booster in Urea reactor of Urea-11 was done in January 2018 and that in Urea-21 and Urea-31 was done in November 2018.
The installation of Vapour Absorption Machine (VAM) in PAC-I/II for suction air chilling for energy saving was implemented at a cost of Rs 10.13 Crore. VAM unit was commissioned with PAC-II in August 2018 and PAC-I in November 2018.
Revamping of CO2 compressors and turbines in all the three units is carried out with investment of Rs 1 07.90 Crore. Revamping of CO2 compressor was completed for Urea 11 in January 2018 and revamping of Urea-21 and Urea-31 was completed in November 2018.
Installation of Vapour Absorption Machine (VAM) for CO2 compressor suction cooling was completed in December 2018 at the cost of Rs 9.34 Crore.
During 2019, Company infused Rs 11.33 Crore in its joint venture company, Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL). It crossed the reassessed level of production of 3.30 LMT in respect of Trombay Urea. It set-up and commissioned Gas Turbine Generator (GTG) of 2 x 25 MW along with Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) of 2 x 100 MTPH capacity in April 2018, where some of the steam turbine drives were replaced with motors. The Project costed Rs. 363.80 Crore. It completed installation of Vortex Mixer with Conversion Booster in Thal Urea Reactor of Urea-11 in January 2018 and that in Urea-21 and Urea-31 was done in November 2018. Installation of VAM in PAC-I/II for suction air chilling for energy saving was implemented at a cost of Rs. 10.13 Crore. VAM unit was commissioned with PAC-II in August 2018 and PAC-I in November 2018. Installation of VAM for CO2 compressor suction cooling was completed in December 2018 at the cost of Rs. 9.34 Crore. 'RCF's Water pH Balancer' was launched on 29th August 2018 in the market adding one more value added product to the basket of fertilizers and chemicals.
The Company exported consignment of 120 MTs of Suphala 15:15:15 to Sharjah, UAE during the year 2020, which gained popularity in date farming in UAE. It popularized Ammonium Bicarbonate (ABC) brand in the overseas market through third party export. It launched new products such as Organic Growth Stimulant (OGS) and Soluble Silica Fertilizer. In January, 2020, it commissioned a new Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) adjacent to existing STP with a capacity to treat 22.75 Million Litres per Day (MLD) of Municipal Sewage to produce about 15 MLD of treated water, which is supplied to M/s Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL). It commissioned the drive turbines of Ammonia V PAC & CO2 Compressors, which were carried out by replacing the internals with improved designs at the Unit in Trombay, which costed the Company about Rs. 57.62 Crore. It formed a Joint Venture Company with Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) by incorporating FACT-RCF Building Products Ltd. to set up a Rapidwall project at Kochi, having 50:50 equity holding in the Company. It formed a Joint Venture Company with National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) and Krishak Bharti Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO) by incorporating Urvarak Videsh Limited (UVL) for manufacturing, mining, long term tie ups for Nitrogenous, Phosphatic and Potassic Fertilizers and fertilizer raw materials including exploring the possibility of making investments and rendering Consultancy services, etc. It formed a Joint Venture company, with Coal India Limited (CIL), GAIL (India) Limited (GAIL) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL), with Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL) for revival of FCIL's fertilizer unit at Talcher by establishing and operating coal gasification based fertilizer complex and infused Rs. 143.16 Crore in TFL. A MoU was signed with Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR)-Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology (CIRCOT), Mumbai for collaborative research in the field of Nanotechnology.
On July 27, 2021 MoU was signed between M/s RCF and M/s IFFCO for technology transfer for manufacture of Nano Urea liquid fertilizer. Company imported approx. 45.11 lakh MT quantity of Urea at approx. Rs. 9639.79 Crore through issue of total 4 Global tenders during the year 2020-21. Formic Acid, DMF and MF plants were started during the year 2021. Trombay Urea-V Plant Revamp Scheme based on End-to-End survey conducted by M/s Casale SA, Switzerland was completed in December 2020 which costed the Company about Rs. 137.03 Crore. The main purpose of the project was to reduce specific energy consumption of Urea; 1350 MTPD plant capacity on sustained basis and improve the waste water quality to Boiler Feed Water grade. During the year 2021, Company infused Rs. 375.97 Crore in its joint venture company, Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL).
In 2022, the Company commissioned solar rooftop facilities at Thal and Trombay with an aggregate capacity of 2.17 MWp. During the year 2021-22, 4,531 MWh of solar power and 2212 no of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) were generated.
The Company launched new product Suspension Fertilizer 'Vipula' in 2023. Company has set up a 2 MWp ground mounted Photovoltaic Solar power plant in Trombay Unit. The Company launched Urea gold on July 27, 2023 at Sikar Rajasthan and the production commenced on October 17, 2023 at ANP plant @ 100 MTPD. First BCN rake of 2536 MT Urea Gold was flagged of on January 25, 2024.
In 2024, Company has enhanced the production of Suphala NPK (15:15:15) by installation of additional spherodizer and associated system. Production of Phosphate rich organic manure (PROM) commenced on December 1, 2023 at Trombay unit. The first despatch to Kolhapur Maharashtra was flagged off on December 16, 2023. The MoU target of 1111 MT PROM production was completed in 2023-24.