MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s SRF Ltd is building a new bi-axially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) film line and a resin plant in Thailand as its aims to find a position among the top-10 global film players, as per Plasticsnewseurope.
The USD60m facility will be built at SRF’s current production site in Rayong, Thailand, where its subsidiary – SRF Industries (Thailand) Ltd – is operating the plant.
The new unit is scheduled to start operation in two years, with the new line adding an extra capacity of 40 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa).
The facility will house a 10.6m wide Dornier make line, which SRF claims to be the widest and latest technology machine available worldwide.
In addition, the company is installing direct film casting at the plant in order to save costs and increase competitiveness.
In direct film casting, the BOPET film stretching lines bypass the main extruder as the poly-condensation installation is connected directly to the film stretching line.
The investment, SRF expects, will help the company strengthen its presence in the buoyant South East Asian market.
SRF also believes that the colocation with the existing plant would create “significant synergies” and shorten production lead-times.
Thailand, specifically, offers a strong customer base and a favorable tax and duty structure for SRF, according to managing director Ashish Bharat Ram.
"Thailand presents itself as the best location for us to set up this new film line," he noted.
With this investment, SRF says it will be placed amongst the top 10 polyester film producers across the globe. SRF Ltd announced another very similar investment in June, marking the building of its first European manufacturing site in Hungary.
The company has earmarked EUR60m for the new facility, which will house an “ultra-modern” 10.4m wide BOPET film line capable of producing 40 ktpa.
The company expects to complete the European project by the end of next year. With addition of the two facilities, SRF’s total production capacity for BOPET and BOPP films will reach 260,000 ktpa, with manufacturing sites in four countries - India, Thailand, South Africa and Hungary.
MRC