Chennai, India – Manali Petrochemicals confirmed it is planning to increase polyols capacity in an announcement to the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday said it is planning to invest up to Rupee 1000bn ($157m) until 2019 or 2020 to increases its polyol capacity from 50kT/year to 150 kT/year, the firm said in a stock market announcement.
Manali said investment will be on an unspecified brownfield site.
Manali said it currently has 36kT/year capacity for propylene oxide and 50kT/year existing polyol capacity. To meet increasing domestic demand for polyols, Manili has to use the global merchant market. This is “expensive and affects margin,” Manali said in the announcement.
The investment is scheduled to complete in stages. The first, due for completion in March 2016 will take polyol capacity from 50kT/year to 75kT/year. Subsequent phases of 25kT/year are planned on an annual basis.
Manali Chemcials estimates the Indian market for polyols is around 500kT/year and said it is “dominated by transnational petrochemical companies such as Dow, Shell, Bayer, BASF and Huntsman.”
Ashwin Muthiah, Manali Petrochemical chairman and chairman of Manali’s parent company Ashwin Muthiah International said: “The move will give Manali Petrochemicals significant scale and ability to further penetrate the market. The latest technology will ensure efficient and global manufacturing best practices.”
The notification to the Bombay Stock Exchange adds details to a story broken by UTECH-polyurethane.com at UTECH 2015 in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
