Galaxy Plastics (bombay) Pvt. Ltd

In Conversation

Polymerupdate Team : When did your company commence operations?
Sandip Timbadia : We commenced operations 18 years back. An idea was floated for manufacturing products for rural housing. The market at the time was dominated by GALVANISED IRON and ASBESTOS CEMENT roofing sheets, though a couple of manufacturers had already started manufacturing RMP (Red Mud filled PVC) roofing sheets using the technology developed by a Taiwanese company. Gradually, 90 percent of plants manufacturing this product closed operations as the technology used was old. Eventually we reduced the dependence of manufacturing of RMP and ventured into other general PVC products in 1990.

Polymerupdate Team : Can you tell us something about the product portfolio of your company?
Sandip Timbadia : We make PVC roofing sheets, rigid PVC sheets (compact upto 6mm) and flexible PVC sheets.

Polymerupdate Team : What are the applications for the products?
Sandip Timbadia : Rigid PVC sheets find applications in fabrication, electrical appliances and ducting while flexible PVC sheets are used for chemical tank linings and anti corrosive linings. PVC roofing sheets are used for general purpose as well as industrial roofing and cladding applications. They are available in opaque and translucent varieties and in different profiles.

Polymerupdate Team : What is the consumption of PVC at your units?
Sandip Timbadia : Consumption of PVC at our units is nearly 80 to 100 tons per month.

Polymerupdate Team : What are the difficulties faced by you?
Sandip Timbadia : The acceptance level for the use of PVC in roofing sheets is very low amongst consumers in India. People are now demanding Polycarbonate for roofing. PVC has to be modified or made suitable for different kinds of weathers. We organize seminars for architects and fabricators for making them aware of our products but they back out at the last minute as they do not want to take any so called risks for changing the for want of approvals. Sometimes we cannot recover our production costs as we have to compete with low cost cheap handmade FRP roofings who are in a totally unorganized sector and who do not pay any taxes (the without bill culture), or the colour coated steel sheets on the higher end industrial sector and also other products like asbestos cement sheets (even though they are banned in all the industrialised nations) and general purpose galvanized iron roofings.

Polymerupdate Team : How do you protect yourself against price fluctuations?
Sandip Timbadia : We start stocking material from March as prices start looking up from April to July which is the season for our products. In spite of liquidity constraints, one has to stock inventory. We buy from importers on and off.