Page 20 - Plastics News February 2019

CompAny news

Toray Plastics building a facility BPCL, HPCL in talks with

for Automated PP lines Mumbai Port Trust for land

oray Plastics (America) Inc. is building a facility in il majors BPCL, HPCL are known to be in talks
TNorth Kingston, R.I., to house a new automated Owith Mumbai Port Trust for land as MbPT hopes
oriented polypropylene film line that will increase capacity to raise around `3,000 crore by leasing out or sale of
for packaging, label, medical and industrial applications. land to public sector units such as the Mazagon Docks,
Toray Plastics (America), Inc. announced that it is investing Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum
in a new, state-of-the-art 8.7 meter polypropylene film (HPCL). According tp MbPT the eastern seafront
line. The expenditure marks the next phase of Toray’s as it stands today is dotted with two refineries of
multi-year strategic plan, begun in 2016, to expand BPCL and HPCL, other industrial and port-related
and automate production capabilities in order to meet activities. The refineries that came up so close to the
customer demand and maintain its leadership position. buzzing metropolis before the city expanded has been
The new capacity is targeted for packaging, label, constrained — they have been finding it difficult to
expand, given the limited space.

MbPT intends to raise money to manage its employee
cost, pension outgo, as well as for the new development
activity through such land deals with other PSUs,
Yashodhan Vange, deputy chairman, MbPT, had said.
HPCL and BPCL have been in serious discussion to
take land on lease for construction of crude storage
tanks, said R Ramachandan, director refineries, BPCL.
“We are having a proposal to build crude tankages for
HPCL and BPCL. We are seriously considering the MbPT
medical, and industrial applications. Toray anticipates land. Serious talks are on what model to pick — either
start-up in 2020. “Toray’s commitment to our customers we lease the land from them, or they run the tank
is unwavering, and this expansion continues our path of farm and we pay them a fee,” Ramachandran said.
innovation and growth,” says Christopher Roy, Senior Vice Whatever excess land MbPT may have, it can also be
President and General Manager, Torayfan® Division. Roy that BPCL and HPCL together put up a tank farm of
notes that this expansion project features the construction 60,000 cu m capacity, or one of them does it for use
of a new building to house the OPP equipment. Previously
completed projects include the construction of a second
cogeneration system, automation throughout the plant,
including a fully automated packaging line, and the
construction of a 28,800-square-foot facility to house
a new, high-speed 4.5-meter metallizer. Toray Plastics
(America), Inc., is a leading manufacturer of polyester,
polypropylene, bio-based, and metallized films for flexible
and rigid packaging, lidding, medical, graphic, industrial,
optical, and electronic applications and conducts all its
manufacturing and metallizing at one location. Toray is also
a leader in the manufacture of polyolefin, polypropylene, of both the refineries, he said. However, he said they
and polyethylene foams for the automotive and flooring are not interested in the non-industrial land near the
industries. The company is a subsidiary of Toray Industries, salt pans as they are expensive, the MbPT showed.
Inc., the world leader in synthetic fibers and textiles, BPCL runs a 12 million MT/year refinery at Mumbai, and
carbon fibers, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and HPCL’s refinery capacity is 7.5 million MT/year. Setting
high-performance films, which has annual sales exceeding up crude tankages would help both the refineries to
US$19 billion.
have comfortable inventory.

Plastics News Februar y 2019 20