HPL sketches expansion plan

$15 million earmarked for the company's polymer plant in Palwal

High Polymer Labs Ltd (HPL), a manufacturer of polymer products and speciality chemicals has chalked out a $15 million expansion plan for one of its plants in Palwal in Haryana.

The company, which has three plants in Faridabad and one in Punjab, hopes to register a 400 per cent increase in its annual turnover to 10,000 tonnes per annum, up from from the current 2,5000 tonnes per annum, after the expansion.

"The expanded capacity will enable us to meet the growing global demand for our products," the company's Joint Managing Director Umesh Anand told Business Standard.

He said the company had also planned to expand its foot prints in China and the Middle East region. The company was open for joint ventures for setting up projects abroad, he added.

The expanded capacity in the Faridabad plant is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of October 2005. All the operations would be highly automated to enhance productivity, Anand said, adding the investment for the new capacity would be arranged through a mix of debt, equity and internal accruals. He, however, did not divulge any details about the sources of funds.

HPL, which exports its products to over 38 countries across the globe, intends to tap some new markets. "We are strong in the USA and Europe. We are now concentrating on countries in the Middle East and in the far east," Anand said.

HPL, which started its operations in 1964 from the manufacturing chemical blowing agents, now includes a vast range of products like antioxidants, UV-light stabilisers, optical brighteners and flame retardants for plastic, water treatment chemicals and biocides and speciality chemicals used in the agriculture and the pharma sector.

Over 50 per cent of HPL's turnover are exported to markets in the USA and Europe. The company has recorded export growth at 30 per cent during the last few years. It also accounts for 75 per cent of the domestic market share for all its products.

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Growing big

• The expanded capacity in the Faridabad plant is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of October 2005
• The company hopes to arrange the investment for the new capacity through a mix of debt, equity and internal accruals
• The company hopes to register a 400 per cent increase in its annual turnover to 10,000 tonnes per annum
• The company, which exports its products to over 38 countries across the globe, intends to tap some new markets