Asian Paints to invest ₹2,000 cr in new plant

Asian Paints plans is gearing up to set up a new paint manufacturing plant of 4 lakh kilo litres per annum capacity in Madhya Pradesh with an investment of ₹2,000 crore.

The Board of Directors of the company at their meeting held on Friday accorded their approval for setting up a new water-based paint manufacturing facility, said the company in a statement on Saturday. The manufacturing facility is expected to be commissioned in 3 years, after acquisition of land, it added.

The company is exploring the possibility of making this investment and setting up the manufacturing facility in Madhya Pradesh, subject to grant of requisite incentives by the State Government and such other approvals and clearances, as may be required, it added.

The company would use the latest manufacturing technology to produce paints and intermediates in the proposed manufacturing facility in an environment-friendly manner, it said.

Earlier investment announcements

Last October, Asian Paints had announced plans to invest ₹2,100 crore for setting up a manufacturing facility for Vinyl Acetate Ethylene Emulsion (VAE) and Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) in India. and another ₹550 crore to manufacture white cement and other materials.

VAE is the key constituent to manufacture environmental-friendly paints and VAM is a key input to manufacture VAE. The company then said it will invest about ₹2,100 crore over three years. The investment is subject to definitive agreements, including technology license agreement and regulatory approvals.

Installed capacity for the manufacturing facility will be 1 lakh tonnes per annum for VAM and 1.5 lakh tonnes per annum for VAE. The manufacturing of VAM and VAE will provide sustainable cost efficiencies and reduce Asian Paints’ dependence on imports, the company said.

The facility for manufacture of VAM would be based on a licensed technology tie-up with Kellogg Brown & Root LLC (KBR), USA. KBR is a $7.3 billion company based at USA and has presence in 80-plus countries.

In addition, the company had also signed a binding term sheet to set up a joint venture in the UAE with Riddhi Siddhi Crusher and Land Transport, Associated Soap Stone Distributing Company and others last October. The 60:40 joint venture would manufacture and export white cement and white cement clinker, it had said.