German polymer company Covestro recently inaugurated its new production lines for polycarbonate compounding at their Greater Noida Plant in India.

The company says the plant has undergone several de-bottlenecking exercises in the past and as of 2017 it was able to support about 50 percent of the domestic requirements, while the remaining capacity was supported from Map Ta Phut Site in Thailand. With the objective to build a resilient business, the capacity expansion project was initiated in the year 2017. This was the first large-sized project in India after Covestro was carved out from Bayer in the year 2015. With the installation of the 2 new lines, the capacity more than doubled for polycarbonate compounding at the Indian plant. The company says it is the first project across all Covestro sites globally to implement the Compounding Blueprint concept.

Covestro says the project team faced several exceptional challenges like a construction ban due to dust pollution in Delhi region, Covid lockdowns, global and local travel restrictions during the period further impacted the project activities and many of the overseas equipment had to be installed and commissioned with virtual vendor support only. While timelines had to be adjusted, owing to the great teamwork, the project was realised within the original budget despite these major challenges.

Dr. Nicolas Stoeckel, head of Operations Engineering Plastics, Covestro said "We have been investing in capacities from Germany to China to India to further improve our competitiveness and customer-centricity. The latest expansion in Greater Noida – a key component of EP’s global footprint – will further enhance our capacity to better serve our customers in the region. Congratulations and many thanks to the team for achieving this great accomplishment despite all the challenges."

Anand Srinivasan, MD, Covestro (India) said “This investment in production technology reflects our growth as a company, and further demonstrates our commitment to serving our customers sustainably. We continue to proactively partner with our customers by anticipating their needs, studying the market trends and being available locally.”