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Indo Rama to invest Rs 500 cr for increasing polyester output

UNI - Nagpur

Polyester major Indo Rama has embarked upon a Rs 500 crore expansion plan to increase its polyester production capacity by 500 tonnes per day (tpd).

At present, its main manufacturing facility at Butibori, about 25 kms from here, produces 850 tonnes of polyester per day which is well above the installed capacity of 650 tonnes per day.

"Expansion in our business will take annual polyester production from three lakh tonnes to five lakh tonnes by June 2004," said company’s managing director, Mr O P Lohia.

India has a total polyester production capacity of 15 lakh tonnes annually. There are two major integrated players in the market. While Indo Rama makes three lakh tonnes, Reliance produces over five lakh tonnes of polyester in a year. Of Indo Rama’s total sales turnover of Rs 2,400 crore projected for current fiscal year, nearly Rs 2,000 crore is expected to come from polyester units and the balance from its spinning activities.

In first half of 2002-03, the company clocked a turnover of Rs 617.38 crore - up 33.9 per cent from Rs 461.01 crore in the year-on period.

"We have started trial runs of new machines and hope to record a turnover of Rs.3,000 crore by next fiscal year," Mr Lohia told reporters visiting the 235-acre and iso 9002-certified Butibori facility.

The figure is likely to jump to Rs.3,750 crore in 2004-05 and Rs 5,000 crore by 2005-06, he said.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra chief minister Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh asked industries to follow the example of the polyester giant Indo-Rama and set up units in Vidarbha, availing the benefits of special packages devised by the governments. Mr Deshmukh was speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of Indo-Rama’s polyester expansion project at Butibori industrial estate near here. Lok Sabha speaker Mr Manohar Joshi laid the foundation stone for the expansion plan. Stating that Maharashtra’s second capital was most ideally situated for starting any new project, the chief minister hoped cotton growers would also benefit from the polyester unit expansion. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Joshi said he was keen to have special economic zone status for Vidarbha and asked the Maharashtra government to send a techno-feasibility report to the Centre at the earliest. The Union minister of state for chemicals Mr Tapan Sikdar, Maharashtra ministers Mr Patangrao Kadam (industries), Mr Shivajirao Moghe (transport), Mr Satish Chaturvedi (textile) and the Indo-Rama managing director Mr O P Lohia were also present on the occasion.