The joint venture agreement between Indorama Ventures (IVL, Bangkok / Thailand; www.indoramaventures.com) and Dhunseri Petrochem & Tea (Haldia / India; http://dhunseritea.com), first announced in March this year (see Plasteurope.com of 07.03.2016), has been completed. A two-pronged deal, under its terms IVL sold a 50% stake in its Micro Polypet (MicroPet) subsidiary to Dhunseri, while the latter sold half of the control of its Dhunseri Petglobal subsidiary to IVL.

As equal partners, the two companies now have at their disposal 700,000 t/y of PET capacity in India. Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net) shows that MicroPet has nameplate capacity for 216,000 t/y of PET, while Dhunseri Petglobal’s facility in Haldia can turn out 480,000 t/y. The two companies’ joint venture has now become the second largest PET manufacturer on the subcontinent, on the heels of Reliance Industries (RIL, Mumbai / India; www.ril.com), which controls 1.5m t/y of India’s total PET capacities.

Calling the growth potential of India’s PET industry “significant,” IVL points out that the country’s current per capital consumption of the polymer stands at just 0.6 kg per annum, compared to 2.6 kg per annum in China or 10.6 kg per annum in the US. Thanks to a number of third party suppliers, the jv is said to be “effectively integrated” into the PTA feedstock chain and according to IVL is the sole producer of PET in northern and eastern India.