 "Solvay eyes India to boost specialty polymers business growth")
Belgium chemical major Solvay is eyeing to tap emerging opportunities in the growing India market to give a big boost to its global businesses. Although Solvay has been present in India for over five decades, since the year 2000 the company has significantly enhanced its industrial footprint through the global business units Specialty Polymers, Engineering Plastics, Novecare and Special Chemicals activities. Now, with around 1,000 employees and 7 production sites, Solvay is on target to significantly contribute to India’s high growth market need for specialty chemicals.
In particular, the global Specialty Polymers and Engineering Plastics business units of Solvay, which participated in the recently concluded PlastIndia 2015, have been taking a lead in the developments of new and expanded polymer chemistries for customer applications in advanced transportation and automotive, healthcare, electrical and electronics, building and construction, energy and consumer goods industries. Both these units are located in Panoli (Gujarat).
Ever since commissioning its aromatic polyketones operations at Panoli in 2008, Solvay specialty polymers has progressively built up resin volume. “We recently announced a 25 percent capacity expansion for KetaSpire polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and we are already underway to reach our target of more than 1,000 tonnes per year in the third quarter of 2015,” said Amlan Das, head of sales and marketing India for Solvay Specialty Polymers.
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The acquisition of PI Polymer, the engineering plastics business of Indian company PI Industries Ltd, in 2011 further strengthened Solvay’s presence in India. In addition to a manufacturing facility, research and development capabilities, as well as a customer base and a logistics network were acquired.
“Until then, we were importing Technyl polyamide engineering plastics. However, we rapidly expanded the activity and today we have almost doubled capacity and are on target to capture 15 percent of the Indian polyamide compound market by 2016,” said Jitender Bharihoke, commercial director, Solvay Engineering Plastics.
Furthermore, Solvay Engineering Plastics’ Panoli site achieved ISO14001:2004 accreditation in July 2014. Bharihoke continued, “This was an exemplary team effort as we accomplished this challenging environmental standard in only one year, thereby responding and fulfilling customer requests to accelerate the growth of our engineering plastics offering in India.”
Solvay’s research and innovation (R&I) center at Savli (Gujarat) has also established three fellowships for research in sustainable chemistry, nano-technology and polymer science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara. The collaboration between university, research institutes and business organisations is essential to foster breakthrough innovation, speeding up the design process and the launch of new products in the market. The R&I Center will tap the country's huge innovation talent potential and carry out open innovation in collaboration with premier institutes in India.
In particular, the global Specialty Polymers and Engineering Plastics business units of Solvay, which participated in the recently concluded PlastIndia 2015, have been taking a lead in the developments of new and expanded polymer chemistries for customer applications in advanced transportation and automotive, healthcare, electrical and electronics, building and construction, energy and consumer goods industries. Both these units are located in Panoli (Gujarat).
Ever since commissioning its aromatic polyketones operations at Panoli in 2008, Solvay specialty polymers has progressively built up resin volume. “We recently announced a 25 percent capacity expansion for KetaSpire polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and we are already underway to reach our target of more than 1,000 tonnes per year in the third quarter of 2015,” said Amlan Das, head of sales and marketing India for Solvay Specialty Polymers.
ALSO READ: Solvay to raise polymer production capacity by 25% in India
The acquisition of PI Polymer, the engineering plastics business of Indian company PI Industries Ltd, in 2011 further strengthened Solvay’s presence in India. In addition to a manufacturing facility, research and development capabilities, as well as a customer base and a logistics network were acquired.
“Until then, we were importing Technyl polyamide engineering plastics. However, we rapidly expanded the activity and today we have almost doubled capacity and are on target to capture 15 percent of the Indian polyamide compound market by 2016,” said Jitender Bharihoke, commercial director, Solvay Engineering Plastics.
Furthermore, Solvay Engineering Plastics’ Panoli site achieved ISO14001:2004 accreditation in July 2014. Bharihoke continued, “This was an exemplary team effort as we accomplished this challenging environmental standard in only one year, thereby responding and fulfilling customer requests to accelerate the growth of our engineering plastics offering in India.”
Solvay’s research and innovation (R&I) center at Savli (Gujarat) has also established three fellowships for research in sustainable chemistry, nano-technology and polymer science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara. The collaboration between university, research institutes and business organisations is essential to foster breakthrough innovation, speeding up the design process and the launch of new products in the market. The R&I Center will tap the country's huge innovation talent potential and carry out open innovation in collaboration with premier institutes in India.