Home / News / Zenith Fibre to expand polypropylene fibre capacity

Zenith Fibre to expand polypropylene fibre capacity

02 Nov '11

3 min read

Company is set to commission an additional capacity of 5,400 tonnes per annum by March 2012.

Eyeing an increased presence in the technical and non-woven textiles industry, Zenith Fibre is looking at expanding its polypropylene staple fibre (PPSF) manufacturing capacity.

Moving ahead from a capacity of 3,000 tonnes per annum of PPSF at its Savli plant in Vadodara, the company is set to commission an additional capacity of 5,400 tonnes per annum by March 2012. Zenith Fibre is investing around Rs 3 crore for enhancing the PPSF capacity at its plant.

“We will be able to commission the additional capacity within this financial year itself. The demand for PPSF is growing both in the global and domestic markets, especially in construction, technical textiles and chemical industries. Which is why the company has gone ahead with capacity addition at the Vadodara plant,” said KE Sharma, senior general manager – commerce, Zenith Fibre Ltd.

With just another major player in the market manufacturing PPSF at an equally large scale, Zenith Fibre is looking to enhance its current market share of around of 50 per cent by next fiscal.

Apart from construction and technical textiles, the company is also looking at serving the water filtration industry by supplying PPSF.

As an ingredient, the polypropylene staple fibre is used extensively in filter grade fabrics, floor and automobile carpets, geotextiles, knitted materials, thermal- bonded fabrics, hygiene products, and construction industry.

At Zenith Fibre, PPSF is manufactured in two categories of grade including 1.5 denier to 6 denier for hosiery yarns, geo-textile and for filter grade fabrics, and 10 Denier and above for catering to applications such as carpets, blankets, asbestos sheets and pipes, apart from other industrial applications.

Currently, about 50 per cent of PPSF production at Zenith Fibre is marketed in the domestic region.

“The balance 50 per cent of production is exported to countries like Nepal, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Australia, South Africa and Japan. The company produces a superior quality of PPSF is very well accepted in both the domestic and the international markets,” said Sharma.

Meanwhile, once commissioned, the total PPSF capacity of Zenith Fibre would be about 8,400 tonnes per annum. “Post capacity expansion, we expect the company's current turnover of Rs 50 crore to increase to about Rs 75 crore in the next fiscal,” Sharma added.

business-standard.com