Sri City, India – MCNS has opened a systems house and plans to use it to help grow business in India, as it's plan to be a global systems player continue to unfold.
The Indian move builds on its expansion in Mexico. MCNS opened a systems house opened a systems house in Chico, Monterrey, Mexico at the end of April 2016.
In 2017, the Korean-Japanese joint venture proposed building a systems house in India in 2018. At that time, it had the town of Nellore, 120 km north of Sri City in its sights.
The company started building the 15kT/year Indian plant in March; commercial operations started in July and it was opened formally on 8 August.
India is attractive to MCNS because it is the seventh largest economy in the world and as 1.3bn people.
India is also the fifth largest car making country in the world and the sector is dominated by Korean and Japanese producers. These account for 70% car production in the country.
Either Korean or Japanese companies make half of all the refrigerators produced in India.
Sri City is attractive because much automotive and domestic appliance production in India is located near Chennai. The city is located about 70 km away to the south east of the town.
MCNS is to supply Japanese and Korean companies first and then expand into local Indian companies in the future.
'We will accelerate the polyurethane business in India and South Asia based on the India System House. At the same time, we will continue to expand system houses based on the regions which have,' said Eui Joon Lim, the MCNS co-chairman.
Ultimately, MCNS expects to operate systems houses in 11 locations in countries where there are attractive growth prospects, he added.
Reporting by: Choong Ha Lee, Polyurethanes World.