Tata Chemicals puts on hold soda ash plant expansion

India's Tata Chemicals Ltd has put on hold expansion of its soda ash plant in western India because of weak market conditions, a top official said on Monday.

"This is not a good time for expansion, due to current market conditions. We will review this in six months," Chief Financial Officer P K Ghose told reporters.

Tata Chemicals had planned to expand capacity at its Mithapur soda ash plant in Gujarat to 1.2 million tonnes a year, from 975,000 tonnes now, at a cost of 1.5 billion rupees.

"No production cut (in soda ash) is anticipated. Indian market may see softening of (soda ash) prices," he said."

All other expansions are on track, Ghose said.

He said the company's 2.1-billion-rupee investment in de-bottlenecking in Babrala plant in Uttar Pradesh is on track.

"We are going to put money where we get immediate returns," Ghosh said indicating they were expecting immediate returns from investments in the Babrala plant," he said.