Sintex Industries, the Gujarat-based company involved in building products, custom mouldings and textiles, is aiming at restarting two facilities of its US subsidiary, Wausaukee Composites, by June, managing director Amit D Patel said.
Wausaukee’s plant in Iowa was completely shut down, along with the partial closure of its Michigan facility in early 2009, owing to sluggish demand from the wind power industry. Both the plants manufactured parts of a wind turbine such as cones and nacelles.
“We have since spoken to our customers and the demand has improved, so we should restart operations by June,” Patel said. The company is looking to start clearing the inventories it has stocked up since last March.
Sintex acquired an 81% stake in Wausaukee in May 2008 for $17 million. The company, which also makes components for industrial trucks & tractors and mass transit systems, has two more plants in Wisconsin.
For the fiscal ended March 2009, Wausaukee clocked revenues of $43 million. “We expect the topline to remain flat this fiscal,” Patel said, adding that the mass transit systems business was doing quite well.
On Sintex’s French subsidiary, Nief Plastic SA, Patel said plans are afoot to have two new plants, in Hungary and Slovakia, in 2010 at a cost of $20 million.
“These plants will manufacture equipment for medical imaging and aerospace & defence,” Patel said. Nief also produces products for auto original equipment manufacturers.
Sintex bought the 100% stake in Nief for €30 million in October 2007.
For the quarter ended December 2009, Sintex’s consolidated revenues were Rs 835.5 crore, a 5% rise over the same quarter last year. Its net profit grew 2% to Rs 72.45 crore.
Sintex is best-known as the maker of storage tanks & containers, which now form less than 5% of its business.
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