Morex Petrochem Ltd.

In Conversation

Polymerupdate Team : Tell us how you started your career?
Santosh More : I am a chemical engineer by qualification. I started my career in 1973 with the Birla Group wherein I was involved in the paper and cement business. From there I shifted to JK Group. I returned again to the Birlas during 1977-79 for a cement plant which was being constructed in Andhra Pradesh. From there in 1981, I moved to the Times of India Group which has diverse interests in various industries. I was the profit centre head of Shalimar Tar Products 1935 Ltd (STP Ltd) owned by the TOI group. The company used to manufacture products based on coal tar, bitumen used for pipe coating. The company was primarily in the civil construction business and had factories in Bhandup and Goa and coal washeries in Dhanbad, Bihar.

Polymerupdate Team : When did you decide to start your own business venture?
Santosh More : I decided to venture on my own in 1990. With a long term perspective in mind, I floated Morex Petrochem in 1991. Since I was in Kolkata for 5 years, I had a fair knowledge of the market there. I surveyed the chemical market in and around Kolkata and gradually surveyed the entire East Indian market. I started with a sales office in Kolkata and opened a head office in Mumbai for procurement. I started supplying raw material to the Kolkata market and gradually increased my base there.

Polymerupdate Team : How did you plan to diversify from there?
Santosh More : I was successful in the Kolkata market and my company had an average turnover of Rs. 5 crores in 1993-94. In 1994 I opened a branch office in Hyderabad and in 1995 in Bangalore. I then realized that after giving good service to the resin industry, we were in a position to start a resin plant of our own. With this view in mind, I started my own resin plant at Lote Parshuram in 1997-98 for the manufacture of unsaturated polyester resin having various grades. The product was reserved for the Small Scale Industries (SSI) sector). From a production capacity of 600 metric tonnes in 1997, we achieved a production capacity of 4000 metric tonnes in 2006.

Polymerupdate Team : When did you decide that your company should have an international presence?
Santosh More : In 2000, the Government of India withdrew incentives for SSI units. At the same time, we also wanted to have an international presence for our company. With this view in mind, I traveled to Sri Lanka in 2001 and we started a 50 :50 joint venture company called Morex Lanka with a Sri Lankan partner which was commissioned in 2003. This was the first of its kind venture in Sri Lanka as the country used to import requirement of resin. We faced competition in the Sri Lankan market from products imported from Malaysia, South Africa and Europe. In April 2006, we got an approval for a project in Bahrain to be named Morex Bahrain WLL from the Bahrain Government. Pegged at a cost of USD 1 million, construction on the plant is being commenced in October 2007 with production scheduled to start in March 2008. The plant will be manufacturing unsaturated polyester resin and will have a production capacity of 10,000 metric tonnes.

Polymerupdate Team : What are the other projects you are involved in?
Santosh More : In 2005, we acquired a company in Gurgaon, Haryana and another company in Rajasthan in 2006. We also floated a company called Morex Mauritius. We started a venture in Surat Special Economic Zone in 2005-06 for export to neighboring countries. Last year we exported chemicals worth Rs. 4.5 crores from the Surat unit.

Polymerupdate Team : Tell us something on the Research and Development Centre started by you?
Santosh More : With a view to providing superior quality product to our customers, we started our own Research and Development Centre in 2004. We started the Centre in a rented premises in Goregaon before shifting to Vasai. As operations grew and we employed more scientists at the centre, we purchased land at Wada Village in Thane dist. near Manor for a full fledged centre which is expected to be commissioned before December 2007. The centre has been recognized by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt. of India in 2005.

Polymerupdate Team : What are the applications for unsaturated polyester resins?
Santosh More : Today, any sewerage planning for big towns involves the use of Fibre-glass Reinforced Plastics (FRP) Industry. The sewerage network of the entire Middle East comprises of FRP. 80 percent of resin goes into pipe industry. The material also has marine applications wherein it is used in small size boats as well as boats of various sizes. The material is lightweight and non corrosive. The resin also finds application in the automobile sector.

Polymerupdate Team : As someone who has been associated with the industry for so long, what are your views on the polyester resin industry?
Santosh More : I believe that the worst thing to have befallen this industry was to have been categorized in the small scale sector. Good quality polyester resins are not manufactured in the country as the players include people who do not have the requisite knowledge and infrastructure. After the Government removed the industry from the SSI list in May 2006, there appears some scope of improvement now. The polyester market in India has grown at a rate of 10 to 15 percent per year in the last 5 years. It has a potential to grow at a faster rate.