Specialty chemicals group Lamxess has firmed up its plans to expand its production site in Gujarat. The Group will invest over 10 million euro (around 57 crore) to build compounding facilities with an initial capacity of 20,000 metric tons per year for the production of the engineering plastics at Jhagadia in Gujarat.
Construction of the new facilities will begin this year and they are due to go on stream with a workforce of 60 at the start of 2012.
"With an investment of over 10 million euro, we will be strengthening our position as a premium supplier of high-tech plastics in the Asia-Pacific region. As one of the fastest-growing markets for high-tech plastics, India offers the ideal environment for this," said Hubert Fink, head of the semi-crystalline products business unit at Lanxess.
Coupled with the compounding plant in Wuxi, China, the new facilities will supply the entire Asia-Pacific region with Durethan and Pocan. Lanxess recently announced that it would be expanding capacity for the production of these high-tech plastics in Wuxi. This expansion will be completed by mid-2011 and will raise capacity in Wuxi to 60,000 metric tons per year.
In terms of its potential, India is on course to become the third largest consumer market for engineering plastics after the U.S.A. and China. The electrical and electronics industries on the subcontinent are expected to expand by around ten percent in the medium term.
Large numbers of global automakers, their suppliers and numerous international producers of electrical and electronics goods are already active in India or are investing in new plants. "Many of these companies are already key customers of the semi-crystalline products business unit," the company said in a statement.