Basell braces to ramp up local operations

As the Purnendu Chatterjee-led consortium starts taking over Basell Polyolefins, the multinational polymer giant is spreading its wings in India.

The company has started hiring technical manpower in India from first week of May to strengthen its Indian operations.

Basell, the joint venture between BASF and Royal Dutch Shell, operates in India from its office at Nariman Point in Mumbai.

The company has already issued advertisements in select English newspapers in Mumbai for hiring experienced technical people in polymer fields for its marketing and technical team in India.

Sources in the industry said the company was looking to increase its strength in India by almost 50 per cent in next 2-3 months.

Basell currently has a manpower of around 10 for its marketing and technical operations in India.

Globally, Basell has an employee strength of around 6,600.

"It is likely to hire 4-5 people for its Indian operations shortly. The company will hire people in the field of packaging, film and industrial applications," said sources.

The existing technical and marketing team of Basell in India is headed by M S Dodi, a former Nocil and Reliance man who joined Basell around two years back from Reliance.

Basell mainly sales polypropylene and polyethylene in western markets.

"Polypropylene is the main commodity sold by Basell in India so far, which is also its core strength. There is a huge opportunity for polypropylene in western India as there are many plastic units," said sources.

Basell sells around 2,500 ton of polypropylene and around 1,200-1,500 tonne of polyethylene in the country, according to plastic industry sources.

"The company is probably hiring technical people for future expansion of Indian operation in other region too," added sources.