Polyester and Planning

TOO LONG have there been complaints that the planning of primary and intermediate goods capacity has fallen behind capacity created for final goods industries, the oftquoted instances being caprolactum, rayongrade pulp and alloy steels. But in at least one case the boot seems to be on the other foot. Arvind Mafatlal, Chairman of National Organic Chemicals, the first of the many planned petrochemical complexes, and the only one which is coming up, has said that licensing of user polyester manufacturing industries is falling behind the likely supply of the main raw material, ethylene glycol, to be produced by NOCIL.

Not that there has been no demand for licenses to set up polyester units. ICI which has set up the first polyester fibre plant in the country, with the trade name "Terene", has been a great success, though so far the plant has had to use imported raw materials. Not only was the capital issue of the Company, Chemicals and Fibres, oversubscribed—the shares are at present quoted almost at a 100 per cent premium—but the plant was permitted to double its capacity even before it went into initial production. The prospects for the industry must be bright indeed judging by the rush for polyester licences. Birlas, J K, Chinai, Sarabhai, Delhi Cloth and many others, less well known, arc among the applicants and some, like Birlas, have put in more than one application.