Lanxess mulls greenfield plant in India

Lanxess, the chemical company spun off from Bayer of Germany, is considering setting up a greenfield ion exchange resin manufacturing plant in India, either in Gujarat or West Bengal.

The company is in the process of finding a suitable location at the chemical manufacturing hubs in Gujarat and West Bengal and has already held discussions with the respective state industries departments.

"We are actively considering India as a location for the ion exchange resin plant. A team from our parent company will visit India, China and Singapore by April to assess the options. Investment in the project will be in the range of about double digit million euros," said Dr Jorg StraBburger, country representative, Lanxess.

Lanxess, one of the top three producers of ion exchange resins in the world, has three production units, one in the US and two in Europe, according to Dr Jorg.

Ion exchange resins are important products for industrial water treatment, food processing, purification of water and manufacture of ultra-pure water for pharmaceutical use. He also emphasised that Lanxess is currently evaluating some of the Indian chemical companies for prospective acquisitions.

"We are in discussions with some of the Indian businesses that are in our line of activity. But it is too early to disclose anything further", he said. Lanxess had recently commissioned a new production plant at Madurai for Rhenogran range of water-based release agents for tyre systems.

A new compounding plant for Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastics with an expanded capacity is being developed at Moxi to raise the annual production capacity to 80,000 tonnes by next year from 60,000 tonnes, he said.

In fiscal 2006, the Euro 6.9 billion Lanxess had a revenue of 185.5 million euros (Rs.1076.3 crore) from its Indian operations.