Gandhinagar, India — Ferromatik Milacron India Pvt. Ltd. is gearing-up to meet rising demand for injection molding machines from domestic and overseas markets, lining up an $8 million investment in its Vatva based plant in Ahmedabad.
“We are investing approximately $8 million in creating capacity, construction of new building and equipment,” said Shirish V. Divgi, managing director of Milacron Holding Corp.'s India unit, said at Plastindia 2018 in Gandhinagar.
Currently, the Ahmedabad plant has the capacity to produce 2,000 injection presses annually.
“We have produced 1,600 machines in 2017, and as per [the] new plan, the capacity would be hiked to 3,000 units yearly to meet growing commitments domestically,” he said.
He further emphasized: “India as a strategic manufacturing for Milacron and continues to support all the global markets with our products.”
Blue Ash, Ohio-based Milacron Holdings said in January it was phasing out manufacturing in Malterdingen, Germany, by the end of 2018, a year earlier than previously planned.
The company had previously planned to shift the work to an existing plant in the Czech Republic. Now, it plans to shift production to plants in the United States and India. The company will keep administration, sales, service and product development in Malterdingen.
Divgi said the company will introduce improvements like flow manufacturing along with space and process optimization in the new building in Ahmedabad in order to hike production.
The expansion will also allow the Ahmedabad operation to better handle demand from India's packaging market, which is expected to double from an estimated $32 billion in 2015 to $73 billion by 2020, according to a report from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Tata Strategic Management Group.
Milacron India officials also identified Southeast Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States as markets to focus on in 2018.
