Chemplast sets up PVC plant at Cuddalore

Invests Rs 600 in the facility

Chemplast Sanmar Ltd, a flagship company of Sanmar Group, has set up a Rs 600- crore greenfield PVC plant at Cuddalore along with a marine terminal facility (MTF).

Company chairman PS Jayaraman said here that the plant would initially produce 140,000 tonnes, which would be scaled up to 170,000 tonnes in a phased manner.

The unit has come up on 69.5 acres of land allocated by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Sipcot) at Semmankuppam.

With this new plant, the company is targeting a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore by 2010-11 from the current Rs 800 crore.

“This is the only chemical project of such a large scale to have come up in Tamil Nadu in the last 15 years,” claimed Jayaraman.

The total aggregate capacity of the company will now be around 2,35,000 tonnes per annum, including the 65,000 tonnes per annum capacity at its Mettur plant.

The other major players in the country in the PVC segment include DCW in Tuticorin, Reliance and Fiolex, said V Ramesh, director, Chemplast Sanmar.

The company is planning to market its product mainly in South India apart from some parts of Orissa, West Bengal and Delhi.

According to Jayaraman, the per capita consumption of PVC in India is only 1.2 per cent, while in developed countries like the US and Germany it is 19 per cent and 17.4 per cent respectively. The average consumption across the world is around 5.14 per cent.

The PVC market is growing at 10 per cent. However, in April, it grew 30 per cent mainly due to the Commonwealth Games which is “abnormal”, he added marine terminal facility.

The MTF on the seafront near Chitrapettai village here would handle import of Vinyl Chloride Monomer. The Tamil Nadu Maritime Board has allocated 7.56 acres for the same. The terminal will handle three shipments in a month.

“This is the only chemical plant at Cuddalore having its own desalination plant,” added M N Ravikumar, vice-president – projects.

The company has also set up a zero liquid discharge facility at the facility.