After starting commercial production at its new PVC pipe plant at Masar in Vadodara, Finolex Industries has decided to set up its fourth plant in India.

Finolex Industries executive chairman Prakash Chhabria said the proposed plant will come up either at the existing plant in Gujarat or in the North-East. Chhabria said the new plant will have a capacity of 50,000 tonne per annum. This could take Finolex Industries? total pipe manufacturing capacity to 2,50,000 tonne per annum in the next 24 to 30 months.

??Finolex has grown at a consistent 15% CAGR in the last 10 years and we want to remain the number one PVC pipe manufacturer in the country,?? Chhabria said in Pune on Wednesday.

There were three big PVC pipe manufacturers in the Indian market 30 years ago and of them only Finolex has survived, Chhabria said.

The market has got fragmented with more than 500 PVC pipe manufacturers. But unlike these local and regional players, a national presence helps the company de-risk against monsoon uncertainties and ensures plant is operating 24×7 round the year and there is no idle capacity, he added. With only 40% to 50% irrigation in the country, there was a lot of potential to grow, he said. Finolex Ind gets 70% of its revenues coming from agriculture sector and 30% from construction.

Finolex Industries is part of the R5,000 crore Finolex Group and is the largest manufacturer of PVC pipes in India. Finolex has two plants in Pune and Ratnagiri and the third at Vadodara in Gujarat and current capacity with the new plant is at 2,00,000 TPA. Finolex also has a 2,60,000 tonne PVC resin manufacturing plant in Ratnagiri. This is the key raw material input for making PVC pipes and has enabled Finolex to ramp up capacity. Finolex is the second largest PVC resin manufacturer in the country and supplies bulk of its production for PVC pipe and PVC pipe fittings in-house.

Finolex has signed MoU with the government of Gujarat at the Vibrant Gujarat 2011 summit to set up the R 100 crore plant on 29 acres. The plant starts with capacity of 30,000 tons per annum and will go up to 50,000 TPA in three to six months. Chhabria said the new plant would help in servicing the markets in the North and full benefits would flow in from 2015.

One plans to monetize land holdings in Pune, Saurabh S Dhanorkar, MD, Finolex Industries, said there were no plans to monetize the real estate holding of Finolex Industries in Pimpri. The company owns prime real estate here after the main plantwas shifted to Urse, near th Pune-Mumbai Expressway. They were not in a hurry and land value has meanshile appreciated, Dhanorkar said.

Finolex Ind had a turnover of Rs 2,100 crore in FY12. The company has a debt of Rs 900 crore and Chhabria said the debt levels would be reduced in the current year. This debt was for working capital as well as for investments The company has been in an investing phase with a 43 MW power plant in Ratnagiri, a cryogenic jetty at the plant and the new plant at Gujarat, Chhabria explained.