Press release

Heerlen, NL, 01 Mar 2011 08:15 CET

Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, today announces that it will start a partnership with Kemrock Industries in India for the production of specialty composite resins in India. DSM and Kemrock together will invest $25 million in the joint venture.

With this partnership DSM, one of the leading composite resins providers in the world, will structurally strengthen its presence in India and leverage its depth of technological knowledge and global customer relationships. Both partners will utilize and leverage each other’s strengths whereby DSM will focus on the supply of innovative specialized composite resin solutions to the fast growing Indian market while Kemrock will concentrate on the production of high end composite parts.

DSM will hold 51% and Kemrock 49% in a joint venture, which will be based in Pune. In addition to the joint venture, DSM will establish its own local marketing and sales company for composite resins to serve the Indian domestic market.

Nico Gerardu, Member of the DSM Managing Board and responsible for the Performance Materials cluster, said: “This joint venture fits with all four growth drivers of our strategy DSM in motion: driving focused growth and provides an excellent opportunity to further grow our composite resins business in India. In addition, this joint venture re-confirms our longstanding commitment to India, a country that has become an important market for DSM.”

Michael Effing, President DSM Composite Resins, added: “We are excited to start working with Kemrock Industries, a well-known and highly respected partner and market leader in India in composite parts. We are convinced that our joint venture will play an important role in the fast growing market for composites in India, as the number of applications and markets continues to grow. Our composite resins for instance do not only increase the yield of wind turbines, they can also replace metal in automotive applications.”

Kalpesh Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Kemrock said: “With this alliance with DSM, Kemrock will strengthen its expertise in composites manufacturing and provide customized solutions to the fast growing Indian and global composites market.”

Composite resins (unsaturated polyester resins, including vinyl esters and additives) are used in the production of fiber reinforced plastics or non-reinforced filled products. Due to the ease and freedom of processing, unsaturated polyester resins can be applied in the manufacturing of small and very large structures. Composite resins are well known in applications in marine and automotive, but also in for example wind turbine blades.