Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd., a leading global PET resin maker, recently announced its corporate strategy through 2023.
Officials with Bangkok-based Indorama unveiled the firm's plans Jan. 31 at its Capital Markets Day event, and said in a Feb. 4 news release that Indorama's "time-tested approach has generated strong returns for stakeholders through both the peaks and valleys of the chemical cycle."
Indorama's strategy through 2023 will focus on the "five pillars" of cost transformation, asset full potential, adjacency growth, recycling leadership and people. In combined PET, officials said that the firm "aims to strengthen our cost advantage while also driving the circular economy for PET by building a leading recycling business."
"Going forward, [Indorama] will continue to pursue our strategic themes, with the ambition of achieving double-digit [return on capital employed], strong cash flows across the cycle and above average returns to shareholders," CEO Aloke Lohia said in the release.
Since late 2018, Indorama has made two recycling acquisitions in the U.S. It first purchased a PET recycling plant in Athens, Ala., from Custom Polymers PET LLC. That location recycles PET pellets and flake with two lines that have a combined capacity of 75 million pounds per year.
Then in December, Indorama acquired Green Fiber International Inc. of Fontana, Calif., giving the company a recycling presence on the West Coast for the first time. Green Fiber operates almost 100 million pounds of PET recycling capacity at a 140,000-square-foot plant.
In mid-2019, Lohia said on a conference call with investors that Indorama had allocated a budget of $1 billion to recycling so that by 2025, when brand owners want 25 percent content in packaging, Indorama "will be able to deliver."
Along with the $1 billion total mentioned on the conference call, Lohia said in an interview with Reuters that Indorama plans an additional $500 million investment to help its customers meet 25 percent recycled content rates.
Indorama employs 24,000 worldwide and posted sales of $10.7 billion in 2018.