Plastech News

New Delhi —   One of India's leading PVC pipe manufacturers, Astral Poly Technik Ltd., is in the midst of an expansion in both the northern and southern parts of the country. The company, based in Ahmedabad, is leasing land from the Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corp. Ltd. at the Ghiloh Industrial Area in the Alwar district of Rajasthan. In a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said the facility will make PVC and chlorinated PVC pipe and fittings, initially for the water market, and said it would initially invest about 70 crore Indian rupees ($11 million). In an interview at the Acetech building products show in New Delhi in mid-December, a company official declined to share details on the total investment or capacity, but said the Rajasthan plant would cut shipping costs for supplying northern India, including Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, which are currently served by its Gujarat plant about 600 miles away. In a November call with...

When the founders of plastic pipe maker Ipex Group of Cos. came to Canada from then-Soviet occupied Estonia in 1949, they started manufacturing hula-hoops. Now they want to avoid getting hooped by cross-border trade restrictions. "The founders made their first million dollars within three years of coming to Canada, but they figured it might be a fad," says Veso Sobot, engineer and director of corporate affairs for the Mississauga-headquartered Ipex Management Inc. "So they straightened out the hoops and started making pipe." Today, Ipex has 18 plants in Canada and seven in the United States. "We supply the North American market with pipe for construction," Mr. Sobot says. Ipex makes thermoplastic pipe used in infrastructure for plumbing in buildings, factories and municipal water systems. "There's a lot of opportunity for supplying the infrastructure market in both Canada and the United States, and we've been doing so for 67 ...