Date:10/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/05/10/stories/2005051000981000.htm

Back Miracle to set up rubber plant in Coimbatore

Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram , May 9

THE Kerala-based Miracle Group with interests in the manufacture of reclaimed rubber proposes to set up a new plant, its third, in Coimbatore to meet raised demand from tyre manufacturers.

Announcing this, Mr P. P. Ahmed Kutty, Chairman and Managing Director, told newspersons here that the group has set up a new company, Miracle Polymers India Ltd, to oversee operations in Coimbatore. It has been floated with a paid-up capital of Rs 2.1 crore, but efforts are on to raise additional funds to the tune of Rs 1.6 crore from the NRI community.

Commercial production from the new facility will start from January 2006. According to Mr Kutty, the existing production capacity of 380 tonnes per month has been found to be far below the demand from the user industry. This is what led the group to think in terms of setting up a third facility with a capacity to produce 400 tonnes per month.

Coimbatore was chosen as the new base taking in view the availability in adequate quantities of crumb rubber in the neighbourhood. Other factors that swung the decision in its favour were the emerging opportunities in rubber-based industries, uninterrupted electricity, cheap labour and backward linkages to parent units.

According to Mr V. K. Hassan, Managing Director, Miracle Polymers, the company will employ 160 employees to start with, 60 per cent being women. The indigenously developed technology has helped reduce the capital expenditure for the new facility by as much as 50 per cent.