1994 FGP LIMITED CHAIRMAN'S SPEECH Ladies & Gentlemen, I have great pleasure in welcoming you on behalf of the Board to the Thirty- second Annual General Meeting of the Company. The Notice for this Meeting, the Annual Acounts and Directors' Report for the year have already been with you for some time now and with your approval, I would like to take these as read. During the year 1993-94, the country took some very concrete steps towards integrating its economy with the rest of the world. This is a very exciting process and the possibilities for an enterprise to exploit the opportunities being thrown up are immenses. Your Company, in anticipation of the forthcoming challenges began a process of consolidating its position in the market-place by acquiring its position in the market-place by acquiring a new Glass Fibre Unit an doubling its capacity. With this acquisistion we become the dominant players in the domestic market. Glass Fibre products have a very low penetration in the Indian market compared to the developed world and therefore the potential is good. As against a market size of 6 lakhs tonnes in the USA, the size of the market in India is only 8000 tonnes. As we integrate with the world and as the products get more sophisticated within the country, Fibreglass Reinforced Plastics will follow the trend of substitution as has happend else where in th world. It is heartening to note that in the last two months, the international prices have firmed up and we have been able to able to increase our selling price by 10% recently. This international price increase has also relieved us to a large extent of the problem of dumping faed last year. During the year the production was 5324 tonnes and sales were 5563 tonnes. This was possible due to a major breakthrough in the market for large diameter reinforced plastic pipes. This market has a very large potential since pipelines for municipal water, oil movement etc. which are presently made from mild steel or cement can be replaced with GRP Pipes. Other promising applications are windmill bades as generation of power from windmills in the country is likely to take off in a big way. Our custmoers have also got trial orders for underground petroleum tanks which are a major item of use in advanced countries. The market for engineering plastics has also revived with pick-up in industrial activity and the growth of these products is further strengthened with entry of multinationals such as GE Plastics into the business. Our Export thrust has also been encouraging with significant increase involumes and we have consolidated our position in Middle East, New Zealand and Europe. It is very encouraging to note that we have pushed up our capacity utilisation from around 60% to about 90%. The Company continues to suffer under disproportionate debt which has put a pressure on the profits. W hope to correct the imbalance in the Financial structure. Production is showing an upward trend as illustrated by volumes sold in September 1994 and October 1994, which are 634 tonnes and 645 tonnes respectively, compared to 434 tonnes and 485 tonnes for the corresponding months in the previous year. The Meeting this year has been delayed due to problems that we faced with the acquisition of new undertking and consolidation of accounts and I would seek your indulgence towards for bearance with this delay. I acknowledge with gratitude the guidance of the Board and the contribution made by all the employees of the Company, who continue to work with dedication and commitment. I am also happy to report that industrial relations at Plants are satisfactory. I am grateful to the Shareholders for their continuing support. I am confident that your Company will make rapid progress in the future.