Mathewsons plans PVC unit at Kinfra Park

Kerala-based Mathewsons, a diversified business group, which is into food products and real estate among others, is planning to set up south India's biggest PVC doors and ceiling panels manufacturing unit at the Kinfra Park near Kochi.

Beby Mathew, chairman of Mathewsons group, said the initial investment would be Rs 10 crore. The fully automated unit will be spread over 15,000 sft and the entire extrusion tooling and production lines installed will be of German technology.

The unit would initially have a production capacity of 3 lakh doors per annum, which would be enhanced to 8 lakh doors per annum by 2009, he told the media.

The R&D wing of the company has started research in exploring the future dynamics of PVC-based products like windows, kitchen cabinets, partitions and office furnishing.

The Indian plastic industry has an annual growth of 20 per cent and the demand for plastic-based building material such as PVC doors, and ceiling panels would increase further, he added.

China is the major manufacturer of PVC doors in the global market he said, adding the recent cut in the export subsidy in China from 13 per cent to 5 per cent was opening up new manufacturing base elsewhere.

To capitalise on this, the group is in discussions for manufacturing PVC-based products for Europe and Canada.