Arvin Announces a Joint Venture for Manufacturing Glass Fabrics in India

Textile major Arvind announced the formation of a joint venture with the Germany based PD Fiber Glass Group for the manufacture of glass fabrics in India.

The venture will cater to the requirements of a cross section of industries like automobiles and transportation, wind energy, aerospace, ship building and infrastructure etc. Furthermore, India is making rapid strides in wind energy by becoming the 4th largest player in the world and is also fast becoming a hub for automobile manufacturers. These three sectors – wind energy, automotive and infrastructure – are likely to lead the growth of the glass fabric market in India. The joint venture, Arvind PD Glass Composites Pvt Ltd, will have a 51 : 49 equity participation from Arvind and PD Group respectively. A total investment of INR 800 million in a span of 5 years is planned for this initiative. The setup will manufacture 30000 Mt/y of glass fabrics.The new facility will manufacture woven, bi-axial and multi-axial glass fabrics along with stitched and chopped mat-glass fabrics. A large part of the new company's output will be marketed overseas. India currently is a small market for glass fabrics, but as the Indian aerospace, auto and wind energy sectors grows; the demand is likely to increase considerably (12/2011).