Ahmedabad, 3 April 2014

BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi-led Gujarat will witness the ground-breaking ceremony for US billionaire Warren Buffet-led company, Lubrizol Corporation on Friday. This will be the first investment by Buffett in India.

Lubrizol Corporation, a fully-owned subsidiary of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is setting up a Rs 300 crore(US $ 50 million)chlorinated polyvinyl choride (CPVC) compounding plant at the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) estate in Dahej in Bharuch district of Gujarat.

The plant is expected to be become operational in the first quarter of the calender year 2015.

The new manufacturing facility has a capacity to produce approximately 55,000 metric tonnes of compounds annually which will be sold mostly to the pipes and fittings industry in the Indian market.

“The plant at Dahej is strategically located for our global business and will also serve South-Asian, East Africa and middle-east markets,” said Eric R Schnur, president, Lubrizol Advanced Materials, Inc while addressing mediapersons on Thursday.

“We are very excited about the location of the plant and we believe we have selected the right one. The site is large enough for future expansion,” said Schnur adding that the company plans was also exploring the possiblity to set up a resin manufacturing plant at Dahej GIDC in the next two years.

Schnur also pointed out that Lubrizol — a Berkshire Hathaway company — was going alone in setting up the plant which will have about 50 full-time employees and 100 contractors. Earlier, the company had planned to enter into a joint-venture agreement with Ahmedabad-based Astral Poly Technik Ltd to set up this plant.