Ghani Chemical Industries Limited (GCIL) is in process to set up Pakistan’s largest Air Separation Unit (ASU) plant in Hattar Special Economic Zone, located in District Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

GCIL, engaged in the manufacturing, sale and trading of medical, industrial gases and chemicals, shared the development in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday.

“The company is actively in the process to set up Pakistan’s largest and the company’s fifth 275 tons per day (TPD) ASU plant for manufacturing of medical and industrial gases at Hattar Special Economic Zone,” read the notice.

Sharing updates, GCIL informed that it has imported plant and machinery for the project, which “have arrived, unloaded and custom cleared”.

Apart from the ASU plant, the company is also in the process for establishing a calcium carbide manufacturing project at Hattar Special Economic Zone, GCIL shared.

“Hopefully this project will save millions of USD and shall also open the doors for earning foreign exchange for the country,” the company said.

Calcium carbide, also known as calcium acetylide, is a chemical compound used in the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

“Both the above projects are planned to be in operation during the first quarter of calendar year 2024,” said GCIL.

Last year, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s Environmental Protection Agency accorded approval to GCIL to set up a calcium carbide plant at Hattar Economic Zone.

The company back then also shared that it had secured LCs (Letters of Credit) and approval from KPK’s Environmental Protection Agency for the setup of ASU plant at Hattar Economic Zone.

Last month, the Board of Directors of GCIL decided to set up a multi-million dollar coal power plant.

“To overcome the high utility prices issue (being the only raw material for manufacturing of medical and industrial gases), it has been decided to set up a 7MW coal power plant based on a mix of local and imported coal at Port Qasim and/or any other nearby suitable location at a projected cost of $5-5.5 million,” the company said in a notice to the bourse back then.

The company said that the plant is expected to save 45% to 50% power cost of its Air Separation Unit (ASU) plants installed at Port Qasim in Karachi.