 "Plastic film image via Shutterstock.")
Xpro India Ltd, producer of plastic films, synthetic resins and materials, cotton yarn, has suspended the production at the company’s Faridabad unit, which had unviable over recent years. The plant produced coextruded plastic sheets and coextruded cast plastic films. The company, which is a part of the Birla Group, said that the supply of these products will not be affected by this suspension as it has built adequate capacities for production of coextruded sheets & coextruded cast films at its other units.
The board of directors of the company will also consider strategic opportunities/options for the Faridabad unit in due course, said Xpro India in a BSE filing on August 24, 2016.
Xpro operations are structured into two operating divisions – Biax and Coex. The Biax division manufactures a range of coextruded biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films and dielectric films for multipurpose applications such as food packaging, specialised films for use in electronics, print lamination, cigarette overwraps, adhesive tape etc.
Its Coex division manufactures coextruded sheets, thermoformed refrigerator liners and coextruded cast films which find applications in wide range of products, including sheets for refrigerator liners, disposable containers, automotive parts, etc. Cast films are high clarity films including stretch wrap and cling, specially formulated films for medical disposables, hygiene films, and others for packaging.
Reflecting overall market circumstances, the total production of sheets, including as liners, and cast films at this division had showed marginal growth in 2015-16 at 16,473 MT compared to 16,365 MT in 2014-15. As result, in keeping with strategic direction to arrest the decline of viability at Faridabad, the company has been focussing on production of only cast films at this unit. In addition, as part of its long term strategic plans and to meet growing requirements of cast film (particularly of hygiene films), Xpro commenced commercial production of cast film capacity at Ranjangaon (Maharashtra) by the end-March 2016.
