The Hindu : Business : AV Birla group to invest $350 m in Laos

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 18, 2006

Business

Business

AV Birla group to invest $350 m in Laos

Staff Correspondent

Project to raise pulp wood specie plantations and set up a pulp plant

MUMBAI: The Aditya Birla Group will invest $350 million in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) for a project to raise pulp wood specie plantations and set up a pulp plant for its viscose staple fibre (VSF) business. Grasim Industries, Thai Rayon Public Co. Ltd., and PT Indo Bharat Rayon in Indonesia — all belonging to the AV Birla Group — will invest in the project as equity holders, Kumar Mangalma Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, said in a release.

The Group has secured 50,000 hectares from the Government of Laos on lease for a 75-year period. Eucalyptus plantations, which would be raised on the land, would provide the feedstock for the pulp plant. The project will be implemented in two phases — first the plantation phase and second the setting up of the dissolving pulp plant. Eucalyptus plantations normally have a growth cycle of seven years. The commissioning of the pulp plant would coincide with the harvest of the first plantation, that is, the seventh year. The pulp produced in Laos would be exported to the group's rayon fibre manufacturing unit in India, Thailand and Indonesia and newer locations.

The AV Birla Group has seven pulp and fibre plants spanning India, Thailand, Indonesia and Canada.

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