In Chandanvelly, India, near Hyderabad, Ester Industries (Haryana; www.esterindustries.com) has commissioned a new production facility for biaxially oriented PET film for subsidiary Ester Filmtech with a capacity of 48,000 t/y. The PET group invested around EUR 73 mn in the 200,000 m² site.

Main customers for the film are manufacturers of flexible packaging. At full capacity, the plant is expected to generate annual sales of about EUR 67 mn. Ester CEO Arvind Singhania said “30% to 40%” of production is likely to be exported.

Ester already has a 57,000 t/y polyester film plant at Khatima in the North-Indian state of Uttarakhand. The company, owned by the Singhania family, runs three stretching lines there in widths ranging from 3.2 m to 8.7 m from German machine maker Dornier (Lindau; www.lindauerdornier.com). In Khatima, the group also operates production facilities for 67,000 t/y of PET and PBT granules, and 30,000 t/y of speciality polymers.

Related: Radici completes acquisition in India

Last year, Ester sold its engineering plastics division – with compounds based on polyamides, polyesters, polycarbonate, ABS, POM, and polypropylene – to Italian polyamide specialist Radici (Bergamo; www.radicigroup.com – see Plasteurope.com of 13.05.2022). The transaction included a production site in Halol (Gujarat) in Northwest India with facilities for 20,000 t/y of compounds, and research and development laboratories.