The Singapore-based Indorama Corporation is already considering a second manufacturing unit in India — for polyester fibres used in hygiene products. This even as the first domestic facility of the company — a spandex plant, comes on stream next month.

“Globally, we are the largest hygiene sector supplier to most of FMCG majors, but in India the market is not very developed yet,” Mr Amit Lohia, Managing Director, Indorama Corp, told Business Line .

“They (FMCG firms) currently import the fibres and fabrics. So there's a chance to make the supply chain locally integrated — we're looking at those aspects. As our clients invest here, we will back them up.”

Hygiene products refer to facial wipes and baby diapers, for which Indorama supplies the fibres and textile material. The firm also supplies to makers of food-grade plastic products and packaging firms, while 11 per cent of its global revenue comes from auto fabrics.

The $8-billion firm has manufacturing operations in 19 locations worldwide and a presence in 32 countries. Indorama's spandex plant (sold under brand ‘Inviya'), is expected to offer sectors such as the apparel industry a cheaper domestic alternative to imported brands such as Lycra.

“We think this is a great way to come back to India. We hope to get a lot of the spandex market with our new plant at Himachal Pradesh, which starts Phase I of operations in March,” Mr Lohia said.

With an initial capacity of 5,000 tonnes a year, the facility will look to export and also capture a major share of the 6,000 tonnes a year domestic spandex market. By Phase III, capacity can go up to 15,000 tonnes a year.

roudra.b@thehindu.co.in

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