Finolex pipes thrust on drip irrigation and construction sector

Panaji, Sept 20 (UNI) Pune-based Finolex Industries Limited(FIL), the flagship company of the Rs 2500 crore Finolex group in Maharashtra has plans to cash in on the growing need of quality PVC pipes in drip irrigation and construction sectors.

The demand for such quality pipes to meet the agriculture needs was about 65 per cent of the pipes production which account for 650,000 tonnes valued at about Rs 4,000 crores per annum in the country.

''The organised and unorganised sector however equally share the production capacities even as demand for quality PVC pipes is on rise in specific areas such as as irrigation and construction industry of late,''according to the FIL president Mr Vivek Khandekar.

Interacting with media persons here last evening on the developments in the PVC industry, Mr Vivek said though FIL continues to be the largest manufacturer of the PVC pipes in India, it had no immediate plans to export its products.

''We want to strengthen our markets in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa and Tamilnadu first besides a few other places in the North,'' he said.

The industry in general had been witnessing 10 per cent annual growth and FIL had 20 per cent market share even as it had doubled its PVC resin manufacturing capacitity to 260,000 tonnes per annum at its backward integration facility at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra during the quarter ended on March 31,2006.

The company, he said, had also planned to increase the PVC pipe manufacturing capacity to 80,000 tonnes at its Pune facility this fiscal as against the existing 65,000 tonnes at an investment of Rs 18 crores.

Interestingly,the FIL had recently launched what it termed ''UV stabilised plumbing systems'' with encouraging response from the plumbing industry across the country.

The new pipes have cold welding for jointing which in layman's language is known as ''solvent cement'' resulting in homogenous leak-proof joint.

The company,which has been in the area of plumbing pipes for the last 15 years, is planning to further expand its capacity in the UV segment.

In Goa, the company had initiated the change from metallioc pipes to the PVC pipes for drinking water appliction even as the construction industry had been responding to the products, Mr Vivek added.

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