Michael Zobel, Managing Director-Ion Exchange Resins reveals more about the new project in India in an interview.

 

 

He talks about the Ion exchange industry, the new facility in India and the efforts put in to finalise Jhagadia as the location.

Q. What are the factors which led to the decision of having an ION Exchange Resins’ plant?
The business unit Ion Exchange Resins is registering strong growth from both regional as well as global perspectives. To profitably grow further, we need new sites as there are lots of positive trends seen in these industries.

We serve a broad range of industries. For example; we are looking into the various trends of water, scarcity of water, quality of water and supplying solution to industries. We also serve the nuclear, power and semi conductor industry which have special needs of purified water. That is why we call it as industry of water treatment.

Our second segment is the consumer segment where on one side we have end customer application like food chromatography, de-ashing of starch and gelatin. In places like India there is the big sugar industry which in turn means that our products for sugar syrup decolourization have strong growth potential in future.

Our third segment called specialties involves specialized water treatment, decontamination of surface, ground and waste water. We also provide customized solutions for the mining industry where the new technology is ongoing and we are also tapping the petrochemical catalyst industry.


Q. Is this strong growth seen only in the Asian region or the world over?
The growth is certainly worldwide but the Asian markets are developing at a quicker pace and it’s just exciting to see the sizes of these markets especially in the consumer and specialty section.


Q. What are the major factors which influenced the decision in favor of India?
Low cost of production and full competency are the two factors that we looked into while scanning sites as we wanted to cover the entire range of products that we are producing but at a lower cost. The three key locations which were considered were China, Singapore and India but the inclination towards India was at the end on various favourable grounds.


Q. What are the factors that influenced you to take decision in favor of Gujarat?
Initially we started with a list of 35 potential locations as there are plenty of chemical sites in India. Then the next steps were to cut down the number of locations on various parameters like access to certain raw materials, infrastructure, cost factors, government support and exposure to natural impacts. We also visited some locations personally as different states have different requirements and analyzed how the infrastructure would be. We finally short listed three, the final decision being Jhagadia.


Q. How has been the support from the government and local authorities in this project?
The approach has been very professional and in fact the best we’ve seen throughout the country. We have had steady and smooth negotiations with them and also have good relations with all the authorities as we are going to create more employment and new employees are going to be part of our company which is very crucial for growth. Their support, in a way, will be a major factor to make this project a success.


Q. When do you estimate that the production should start at this plant?
Construction will start depending on certain requirements which we are yet to fulfill. There are still some processes which we have to run through, but ideally by first half of 2010, the production should be on its way.