NEW YORK — DuPont said Thursday it has established a joint venture that will break ground this year for a $200 million nylon plant in India, its first fibers project in that country.
The joint venture is known as Thapar DuPont Ltd., and the other lead partner is Ballarpur Industries, New Delhi. The plant, which will produce type 6,6 nylon for textiles and tire cord, will be located at Keri, in the Indian state of Goa.
The plant will have an annual capacity of 40 million pounds and is slated to come on-line by the end of fall 1996.
Jerald Blumberg, DuPont’s senior vice president who oversees the company’s $4.2 billion nylon business, was in Asia Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
In an interview last February, however, Blumberg asserted the importance of the Asian market: “Asia is growing rapidly, and we have the potential for enhanced growth there, as well as in Eastern and Western Europe. Still, if we can’t satisfy the market demands and be responsive, we’ll lose out.”
DuPont would not say how much of a stake the company has in the plant; however, it did say it will fall under the auspices of DuPont Nylon Asia Pacific, one of four nylon manufacturing and marketing units established by the organization this year. Each unit is responsible for individual regions. The other three regions are North America, South America and Europe.
Ballarpur Industries is a paper, fiber and textile producing subsidiary of Thapar Ltd., a consortium of industries, also in New Delhi.
Japan’s Mitsui & Co. Ltd., and the Goa government, through its Economic Development Corp., are the minority partners in the joint venture.
V. (Sam) Singh, a manager with DuPont Nylon Asia Pacific, will be the project manager.
The move is DuPont’s third international venture in nylon in 10 months.
Last July 1, DuPont entered the European nylon market when it completed the acquisition of ICI’s nylon operations. In February, DuPont South America and Fibra, a member of the Vicunha Group in Brazil, entered into a joint production venture to serve the South American textile nylon market. Final agreement on that venture is expected later this year.