Rohm and Haas to invest $100 million in India

Rohm and Haas, one of the largest speciality material manufacturers in the world, plans to invest $100 million (about Rs 410 crore) in India to develop manufacturing and research and development facilities.

Further, it will pick up substantial equity stake in the proposed joint venture with Reliance Industries (RIL) at Jamnagar for setting up a 2 lakh tonne per annum capacity acrylic acid and related esters plant, which will require capital expenditure of over $ 250-300 million (Rs 1020-1225 crore).

Rohm and Haas started a 30-40,000 metric tonnes (MT) a year capacity acrylic emulsion plant at Sriperumbathur near Chennai with an investment of $12 million (Rs 49 crore). Inaugurated yesterday, the plant manufactures speciality materials used in the manufacture of paints, coatings, adhesives, textiles, paper and leather industries. The company is doubling its 35,000 MT similar facility at Taloja in Mumbai.

Together, the two plants will have a capacity to produce 1-1.1 lakh MT per annum. The company will also set up a research and development centre and an engineering and process development facility with an investment of $20 million (Rs81 crore), said, Raj L Gupta, chairman and CEO of $ 9 billion Rohm and Haas.

Raj Gupta is among the three Indian born CEOs leading the Fortune 500 companies. The other two are Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo and Ramani Iyer, CEO of Hartford Financial, one of the largest insurance companies in US.

"We have ambitious growth plans in India. From a business of Rs 100 crore in 2003, we have grown to over Rs 400 crore by 2007 in this country. With the current expansion, our target is to reach Rs 1000 crore by 2010. We also have plans to set up one of the largest manufacturing facility in India in the coming years and will invest about $ 100 million in India.

This is apart from our plans for RIL joint venture," he said. Commenting on the JV, he said total investment in the plant would be to the tune of $ 250-300 million. Equity structure and other details are being worked out by the partners. At present India imports majority of its requirements for acrylic acid and esters from companies like BSF, Dow Chemicals, LG Chemicals of Korea and Toyo Gosie of Japan. The JV would serve the domestic market needs, besides export of acrylic acid and derivatives. "We hope to finalise the details and equity structure within a few months.

From there, it will take 18-20 months for setting up the plant", he said.

RIL had announced the JV with Rohm and Haas in March, this year. While Rohm and Haas will offer the technology and support, RIL is expected to provide facilities at Jamnagar.

The partners will also jointly explore the speciality market in India and abroad.