Sintex ito invest Rs 200 cr in monolithic pre-fabricated segment

Ahmedabad: With the order book of nearly Rs 1,500 crore from across India, Sintex Industries Ltd (SIL) plans to invest Rs 200 crore to increase capacities in its diversified monolithic pre-fabricated segment for low-cost housing in the next two years.

This is part of the company’s plans to invest around Rs 600 crore during the period with the objective of emerging as a $3-billion company by 2012, company sources told Business Line here.

The monolithic, pre-fabricated structure products of Sintex have found market in educational and health institutions, workers’ shelters, site offices, toilets, armed forces’ bunkers and other utility buildings. In the first half of 2007-08, this segment saw a growth of more than 80 per cent.

Sintex, known for its water tanks, is now increasingly diversifying into composites and textiles, through its companies and joint ventures abroad, and into pre-fabricated structures in India, which it sees as the fast-growing, emerging markets. In the pre-fabricated structures business, Sintex already has orders from the Gujarat municipal bodies to the tune of Rs 750 crore, for the next three years.

It also has orders worth Rs 280 crore from the Delhi Government for the coming Commonwealth Games for construction of a sports complex. In all, it is supplying pre-fabricated material to 11 States. Shelters used by the cellular service providers are now a major pre-fabricated segment which contributes to about 25 to 30 per cent of the total pre-fabricated sales in this sub-segment.

In the next three years, with more and more SEZs and other industrial areas seeking temporary shelters for workforce, this demand is likely to go up to Rs 2,500 crore.