InterviewIndorama Ventures studies Mideast, India PTA/PET projects

08 June 2011 17:48  [Source: ICIS news]

By Anna Jagger

LONDON (ICIS)--Thailand’s Indorama Ventures is studying purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) projects in the Middle East and India as part of plans to extend its global reach, founder and CEO Aloke Lohia said on Wednesday.

The proposed projects are part of the company’s plans to raise its global production capacity, for PTA, PET and fibres, to at least 10m tonnes/year from approximately 5.5m tonnes/year today, he told ICIS in a telephone interview.

This will be achieved both by building new capacities and through acquisitions, he said.

To achieve this goal, the company intends to invest approximately $2bn (€1.36bn) between now and the end of 2014, Lohia added.

Indorama Ventures has already announced expansions and acquisitions that will add about 1m tonnes/year of capacity, including the pending purchase of Germany’s polyester firm Trevira, which brings 120,000 tonnes/year of capacity, he said.

This means there is another 3.5m tonnes of capacity that has not been announced “and that is in the pipeline,” he remarked.

Announced projects include a PET expansion in Poland, PTA and PET expansions in The Netherlands, a polyester project in Indonesia and a PET project in Nigeria.

Lohia said the company is finalising plans to build a worldscale PTA/PET complex in the Middle East and another in India.

There may be a time lag between the start-up of the PTA and PET units, he noted, but the objective is to have integrated production.

Worldscale sizes for new PTA and PET plants are 1m-1.2m tonnes/year and 400,000-500,000 tonnes/year respectively, Lohia said.

He declined to discuss the locations of the Middle East and Indian projects. First, the agreements have to be in place, he explained.

The company does not currently have assets in the Middle East or India. “India is already a huge market and a growing market,” said Lohia, who is an Indian national. “The Middle East offers both the market and has raw material advantages that we would like to tap into”.

Indorama Ventures expects to begin construction of the Middle East and India projects early next year, and bring them onstream by 2014, he said.

The company is also considering investment opportunities in PTA/PET and fibres in Indonesia, following its acquisition of SK Chemicals’ Indonesian fibres and PET business earlier this year. This could take the form of an acquisition, which would be a faster model than a capacity expansion, Lohia observed.

“We would like to build a market leadership position in Indonesia,” he added.

($1 = €0.68)

For more on Indorama visit ICIS company intelligence

By: Anna Jagger
+44 20 8652 3214

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly