CALCUTTA, INDIA (Oct. 26, 2:10 p.m. ET) — Ahmedabad, India-based JH-Welltec Machines India Pvt. Ltd. is setting up its own production facility in India.
Currently, the Indo-Chinese injection molding joint venture is operating from a leased site.
The company expects to acquire a 2.3-acre plot in Ahmedabad in the next couple of months and the plant should be operating by August 2014, said marketing director H.R. Nagadia at Indplas’12, held Oct. 5-8 in Calcutta. JH-Welltec plans to invest around $1 million to build the plant.
The joint venture recorded steep growth after it was established in 2010. “We have already sold 90 injection molding machines domestically,” Nagadia said.
JH-Welltec is a joint venture between Jishu-Hozen Machines Pvt. Ltd. India of Pune, and Welltec Machinery Ltd. of Hong Kong.
The Sino-Indian venture was set up to avoid high anti-dumping duties levied in 2009 by the Indian government on imported injection presses from China. India imposes a 174 percent duty specifically on Chinese injection molding machines.
“The idea was to bridge the demand/supply gap of machinery in the rapidly growing Indian plastic industry,” Nagadia said.
Asked if duties have been able to curb machinery imports from China, Nagadia said: “Not really, as the machines are still coming in knock-down or semi-knockdown conditions via Vietnam, Philippines or Taiwan.”
More machinery has started coming in from Malaysia, as India has a free-trade agreement with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asians Nations, he said.
