August 30, 2012: Arvind PD Glass Composites Pvt Ltd, a joint venture company set up by India's leading textiles company Arvind Limited and Germany's PD FibreGlass Group, commissioned the first phase of its production facility to manufacture glass fabrics recently at Santej, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The JV facility will cater to the requirements of a cross section of industries like automobile & transportation, wind energy, aerospace and infrastructure amongst others.

The joint venture, Arvind PD Glass Composites Pvt Ltd, will have a 51:49 equity participation from Arvind Ltd and PD Group respectively. A total investment of Rs 80 crore over the next three years is planned for this initiative. The goal of the facility would be to reach 30,000 MT per year of glass fabrics in the medium term.

Sanjay Lalbhai, Chairman and Managing Director, Arvind Limited said, "With the commissioning of this new facility, we have taken a major step forward in our long term strategy to develop the technical textiles business as a major growth engine for Arvind Ltd in the coming decade. Over the next two to three years we expect this JV to post revenues in the range of Rs 150 to 200 crore with a significant share coming from exports."

Mr Stefan Preiss-Daimler, Managing Director, PD FibreGlass Group said, "This new facility in India will become an important hub for supplying glass fabrics globally, especially in Asia. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and we expect a big spurt in demand for glass fabrics."

The new facility will manufacture woven uni-directional and multi-axial glass fabrics along with stitched and combo-mat glass fabrics. A large part of the new company's output will be marketed overseas. The global market size for glass fabrics is estimated at 3 Billion USD and is likely to grow at 6-8% over the next five years. India currently is a small market for glass fabrics, estimated at Rs 800-1000 crore. However, as the Indian auto, wind energy, infrastructure and aerospace sectors grow, the demand is expected to grow at over 15-17% per annum. Wind energy is the sector that currently consumes the highest volumes of glass fabric and represents 26% of the overall market, followed by the transportation sector, which represents 16% of the market size.