Goa Carbon is India’s original calcined-petroleum-coke specialist - the company that first made and exported the material from the country in 1967 and has spent more than five decades turning a refinery by-product into the carbon backbone of aluminium smelters. It remains the manufacturing flagship of the Dempo Group, a Goa-based house with interests in mining and education, and operates as a pure-play calciner with three coastal plants and a single product line. The recurring approach is simple: import the best-quality raw petroleum coke that domestic refineries cannot reliably supply, process it in rotary kilns at extremely high temperatures, and sell the resulting calcined coke to the world’s largest aluminium makers - a toll-processing logic built on logistics, long-term supplier relationships, and the reality that there is no commercially viable substitute for its product in aluminium smelting.
Business segments
A single-engine business - one product, one process, one operating segment - with a branded carbon-additive line that extends the same manufacturing core into steel and foundry markets.
1. Calcined Petroleum Coke: the essential input aluminium smelters cannot do without
Goa Carbon takes green petroleum coke - a refinery waste stream - and bakes out the impurities in rotary kilns to produce calcined petroleum coke, the anode material that every primary aluminium smelter on earth depends on.
- One product, two grades, many industries - the company makes anode-grade CPC, which accounts for more than 75% of global production and is indispensable for aluminium smelting, and industrial-grade CPC used in titanium dioxide manufacturing (the base pigment in paints, plastics, cosmetics and toothpaste), high-strength steel for bridges and skyscrapers, and glass, foundry and friction industries. About 0.4 tonnes of CPC are needed to produce every single tonne of primary aluminium, and roughly 85% of all CPC made globally ends up in the aluminium industry.
- Three plants parked next to ports - the company operates a total calcination capacity of 3,08,000 metric tonnes per annum across three locations: a 100,000-tonne plant in Goa (42 kilometres from Mormugao Port), a 168,000-tonne plant at Paradeep in Odisha (8 kilometres from Paradeep Port), and a 40,000-tonne inland plant at Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. It also uses Angre Port in Maharashtra for contamination-free cargo handling and New Mangalore Port in Karnataka, now mechanised for coke and coal by JSW. All three plants hold ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications.
- Imported raw material is the competitive edge - the primary feedstock is green petroleum coke, a by-product of oil refining, and the company relies overwhelmingly on imports because the quality and availability of domestic refinery coke has been deteriorating. Being an import-based calciner lets it source the specific grades that aluminium smelters demand, using long-term relationships built over five decades to buy from multiple sources at competitive prices. It funds these purchases through letters of credit and buyer’s credit facilities, and hedges currency exposure to protect against exchange-rate swings.
- A regulated import quota sets the boundaries - the Supreme Court of India banned petroleum coke imports in 2018 but carved out an exception for calciners because they use it as feedstock, not fuel. The import of raw petroleum coke by Indian calciners was capped at 1.40 million tonnes per annum, and since the financial year 2024-25 the cap has been raised to 1.9 million tonnes, while CPC imports by aluminium smelters remain capped at 0.5 million tonnes, rising to 0.8 million tonnes from FY2026. The same order bars any new calcining capacity or expansion of existing units, and discourages exports - though deemed exports to SEZ units are permitted.
- Environmental compliance is built into the plants - new emission standards for the calcination industry took effect in June 2025, covering particulate matter and sulphur dioxide, and the company has proactively installed flue-gas desulphurisation units with advanced scrubbing systems, bag filters, and automated controls at its plants. It is also collaborating with BITS Pilani, Goa on computational fluid dynamics models of its rotary kilns to predict how varying inputs affect product quality and yield, and has achieved over 40% cumulative green cover across 47 acres of its land.
2. gcarb+ branded carbon solutions: the same kilns, a new customer set
Launched in mid-2024, gcarb+ is the company’s first branded product - a high-performance carbon raiser and additive for steelmakers and foundries, made from the same calcination backbone but packaged and sold as a differentiated offering.
- A recarburiser with a guarantee on the bag - gcarb+ is a carbon additive tailored for primary and secondary steel manufacturing and the foundry industry, made from premium globally sourced raw materials and distinguished by its guaranteed low sulphur content, which helps customers reduce emissions. The packaging carries a distinctive logo and prints key quality parameters such as sulphur and fixed carbon directly on the bag, so buyers know exactly what they are getting.
- Trialled with a marquee name, sold through a dedicated team - successful trials were conducted with Ashok Leyland, confirming the product meets high-performance standards, and the company has deployed a dedicated Carbon Solutions team to drive market penetration, backed by its national plant footprint. The company is also exploring need-based value-added services to sit alongside the product.
Group structure and partners
Goa Carbon is the manufacturing flagship of the Dempo Group, controlled by V. S. Dempo Holdings Private Limited, with no subsidiaries or joint ventures of its own - it is a standalone operating company.
- The Dempo Group spans mining, education and manufacturing, and fellow subsidiaries include Dempo Industries, Dempo Sports Club and Motown Trading. The company had no subsidiaries, associates or joint ventures as of September 2025.
- Day-to-day operations are run by Executive Director Anupam Misra, a chemical engineer with nearly 30 years of senior leadership experience at Exxon Mobil, ICI India, PPG Asian Paints and Nippon Paint. The board is chaired by Shrinivas Dempo and includes Rajesh Dempo as a non-executive director alongside five independent directors.
- The company’s bankers include Bank of India, State Bank of India, Canara Bank, IndusInd Bank and Indian Bank, and it has a related-party borrowing framework allowing it to draw working-capital loans from promoter Shrinivas Dempo up to an aggregate limit of ₹150 crores. Its credit rating from CRISIL is A-/Stable for long-term borrowings and A2+ for short-term.