India’s Dhunseri on track to start up new Haldia PET plant in ‘12

08 September 2011 09:00  [Source: ICIS news]

MELBOURNE (ICIS )--India's Dhunseri Petrochem and Tea is on schedule to start up its new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle resin plant at Haldia, West Bengal in March 2012, an industry source said Thursday.

The new line, which has a nameplate capacity of 210,000 tonnes, will more than double Dhunseri’s bottle chip capacity in India to 410,000 tonnes, the source said.

The company currently operates a 200,000 tonne/year PET plant at the same Haldia site.

Building of the new line began in November 2010.

“Construction is on schedule and production is expected to start by March 2012,” the source said.

Dhunseri plans to export about 50% of its total Indian output when bottle chip production begins at the second line, he said.

Annual domestic Indian bottle resin consumption has slowed to about 15-20% in 2011 from the 25% average seen in recent years because of high inflation and decelerating economic growth, the source added.

The nation consumed 450,000 tonnes of bottle chips in the April 2010 to March 2011 financial year, he said.

In addition to its capacity expansion in India, Dhunseri Petrochem plans to start up a new 440,000 tonne/year PET bottle resin plant in Egypt by the first quarter of 2013, said the source. The project is named Egyptian Indian Polyester Company S.A.E.

Construction of the Egypt project, which will be the first bottle resin plant in north Africa, began at Port Sokhna in June this year.

Aside from meeting demand in Egypt and the surrounding north African nations, PET chip output from the facility will be sold to markets overseas including Europe and the US, he said.

Dhunseri was formerly known as South Asian Petrochem Ltd (SAPL).

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By: Trisha Huang

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