CALCUTTA, INDIA (Oct. 25, 10 a.m. ET) — Ori-Plast Ltd. is planning a foray into large-diameter pipe.
“We have plans to set-up the new facility, most likely to be in [the Bengal region in India], for manufacturing large-diameter drainage pipes,” said Executive Director Harsh Agarwal at Indplas’12, held Oct. 5-8 in Calcutta.
“Currently, large-diameter drainage pipes are in concrete only. Therefore, there is huge potential in the segment, considering bullish trends such as the large investments pumping into infrastructure building projects by government and booming real-estate sectors like housing.”
Calcutta-based Ori-Plast is looking at options including technical collaboration or a joint venture with a foreign partner.
“We are in touch with three companies from the U.S. and holding preliminary talks with them,” he said. “We would like to finalize … investment, plant location and the technical partner in the next eight to 10 months.”
The company now has four facilities, all in India. It makes pipe and fittings of PVC and chlorinated PVC, and high and medium density polyethylene. Two of those plants also rotational mold linear low density PE water tanks. Companywide, Ori-Plast has the capacity to manufacture 110 million pounds of product annually. A fifth plant would bring that total to 143 million pounds.
The company, which has been in business more than 40 years, exports indirectly through international aid agencies like UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
