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The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and the Greater
Houston Partnership conducted a Business-to-Business
forum for the rubber delegation on October 12th, 2001.
The delegation was hosted by CAPEXIL, formerly known as
the Chemical and Allied Products Export Council. The
Ministry Of Commerce, Government of India, sponsors
CAPEXIL.
The four-member delegation represented Polymer
products, Synthetic Rubber and Rubber products
manufactured in India. The four delegates were Mr. M.F.
Vohra, Managing Partner of Zenith Rubber and Plastic
Works based in Mumbai, Mr. Vipin Kalra, Vice Chairman of
Ravasco Transmission and Packing & Hindustan Rubbers
also based in Mumbai, Mr. Kannan Sachindra, Director of
Marketing for Vajra Rubber Products based in Kerala and
Mr. S.K.Ray, Executive Director of CAPEXIL based in
Calcutta.
Mr. Jagdip Ahluwalia, Vice-President of IACCGH,
welcomed the delegates to the forum and asked Dr. Hade,
Deputy Consul General, to introduce the delegates. Mr.
Vohra opened the forum by speaking for the group and the
purpose of their visit in general. He said he was
impressed with Houston and saw great potential for a
"two way trade." In 1991 India opened up its
domestic market and put up a lot of pull factors to
encourage foreign investors. He pointed out India is the
3rd largest rubber producing country with
annually producing 630,000 tons of rubber. As an added
incentive duty on rubber has been brought down
significantly. Indian rubber is a small-scale industry
SBR(Styrene Butadiene
Rubber) is the key substance in a lot of rubber
by-products. Duradene solution SBR also can be
used in a wide variety of non-tire applications that
benefit from Duradene polymer's unique characteristics.
Eg; Flooring, Sheet rubber goods, Conveyer belts, Shoe
products, etc. The delegation suggested that India was
open to investors from here setting up a SBR plant to
meet the 75,000- 100,000 tons of SBR production need.
All the members of CAPEXIL are ISO certified and meet
all the guideline of Environment regulation
Certification.
The delegation was here to explore trade
opportunities for the rubber industry. Mr. Kalra exports
to Europe, Latin America and Australia and would like to
enter the US market. Mr. Kannan Sachindra, a young
upcoming businessman, was proud to list his company’s
achievements in state of the art custom molding. His
company supplies Rocket seals- GSLB Mark 3 and Flexi,
which is a sealant on rockets. He said they have bright
people with a lot of drive to succeed. They need people
who will pay a percentage of the order upfront instead
of expecting everything on credit. They have an in-house
tool room and need only a print out of a mold to
manufacture the unit.
Mr. S.K.Ray pointed out that service sectors have
grown at a rapid pace and in the next 4 to 5 years it
will account for 50 billion dollars in export. CAPEXIL
encourages and works with the following industries:
Minerals, Books, Ceramics, Rubber, and Glassware. He
ended by saying India has the potential to be a hub for
the book publishing industry.
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Rubber Delegation from India
