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| MCC may bring other businesses to India |
| Devjyot Ghoshal / Haldia Oct 24, 2009, 00:57 IST |
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Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC), Japan's largest chemical maker and a major international player in the sector, is mulling expanding its presence in India beyond the purified terephthalic acid (PTA) business, which is its domestic mainstay, as part of its global growth plans.
So far, MCC has invested about Rs 3,175 crore in India, through its domestic arm — MCC PTA India Corp — for establishing its second largest PTA facility worldwide at Haldia in West Bengal. After initially setting up shop here in 2000, the chemical major on Friday commissioned a second plant with a capacity of 8,00,000 tonnes per annum, which is the largest for a single line of production of PTA in the world. The Indian arm is expected to contribute about 30 per cent to MCC's PTA revenues.
However, the company has expressed its keenness to grow in other sectors in India including pharmaceuticals and green technology. “We have an interest in areas such as generic pharmaceuticals, photo voltaic technology, information and electronic technologies for India,” MCC President and CEO Yoshimitsu Kobayashi said. Globally, MCC has a presence in the healthcare as well as the green technology segment. In the former domain, its range of areas include diagnostics, clinical testing services and technologies for drug discovery through group companies such as Mitsubishi Chemical Medicine Corporation. It also undertakes environmental analysis, investigation and assessment through another arm Mitsubishi Chemical Analytech, while Shinryo Corporation, also a group company, has an involvement in semiconductor technologies. While revealing that the firm hadn't yet formed any concrete plans or formalised an investment allocation for mergers and acquisitions in the country, Kobayashi maintained that India was an ideal destination for expansion. “We will have to grow in markets that are growing themselves as the situation in Japan is saturated. We already have collaborations in the country and have a lot of experience with Indian business people,” he said.
MCC had a tie-up with optical storage major Moserbaer in India, Kobayashi said.
Expects $1 bn turnover
The Indian subsidiary of Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, MCC PTA India Corp (MCPI), is hopeful of attaining a turnover in excess of $1 billion by 2010-11, subsequent to the expansion of its Haldia facility.
“We should be able to treble our turnover to Rs 5,000 crore considering the current market prices of PTA,” Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation CEO and President Yoshimitsu Kobayashi said.
While, the company remained light-lipped about its profitability, the entire production at the Haldia plant would be for domestic consumption.
On the continuing difficulties at the Haldia port, which is MCPI's primary maritime facility, the company said that it was not impacted by the impasse as the size of vessels utilized by it were small enough to navigate through the dock complex unhindered.
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