The Kerala Ceramics Limited is a fully owned

Government of Kerala Government of Kerala is the Subnational administrative division, subnational government of the Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior mini ...

ceramics products manufacturing company, situated at

Kundara Kundara is a census town in Kerala and is part of the Kollam Metropolitan Area, India. Kundara is situated 13 km east of Kollam city, 14 km west of Kottarakkara, and 24 km north of Paravur. Kundara is significant for its hist ...

Kollam Kollam (), also known by its former name Quilon , is an ancient seaport and city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. The city i ...

city,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The company produce earthenware and spray dried coating grade as well as filler grade Kaolin for paint, paper manufacturing industries.

History

The company was actually started operations in 1937 during the reign of Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma as the King of

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At ...

. A mining and refining unit and a porcelain wares manufacturing unit were started. In 1963, the

lead by Chief Minister

R. Sankar R. Sankar (30 April 1909 – 7 November 1972) was an Indian politician who was the third Chief Minister of Kerala from 1962 to 1964. He was also the Deputy Chief Minister of the State from 1960 to 1962. Sankar apart from as a politician is kn ...

incorporated the facility as 'The Kerala Ceramics Limited' under Companies Act with its registered Office at

, Kollam by amalgamating these two units. The units in Kerala Ceramics have a capacity to manufacture 18000

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s of

Kaolin Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...

. Kaolex and Kaofil are the two major types of Kaolin produced at Kundara plant. In 2017, the Kerala Government under the leadership of

Pinarayi Vijayan Pinarayi Vijayan (; born 24 May 1945) is an Indian Communist politician who is the current Chief Minister of Kerala, serving since 25 May 2016. A member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he is the longest-serving sec ...

started revival of Kerala Ceramics Limited and has registered operational profit in the financial year 2018-19, after a long journey of operational loss.

Renovation

In 2017,

led LDF Government in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

commissioned a temporary LPG plant. This helped to reduce the production cost from ₹8,500 to ₹5,000-₹5,500. This enabled the company to generate $70 million in annual sales from a loss-making past. The newly renovated refining and filter pass plants will be inaugurated by

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Pinarayi Vijayan on 22 September 2020.

References

Government-owned companies of Kerala Companies based in Kollam Ceramics manufacturers of India Indian companies established in 1963 1963 establishments in Kerala {{India-company-stub