Sri Lanka signs deal to build world's largest PET plant

An export zone tied in with a Chinese funded port in southern Sri Lanka has received an investment of over 500 million U.S. dollars to set up the world's largest Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) packaging resin plant. A statement released by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) noted that the agreement was signed with Hambana Petrochemicals Ltd. to build the factory in the investment zone that is adjacent to a 360 million U.S. dollar Chinese funded port. A 210 million U.S. dollar airport, also funded by China, will be opened near the investment zone on March and the Sri Lankan government hopes that the Hambantota region will receive much needed investment from the infrastructure development. "We have found the best facility to start this industry in Sri Lanka and this is the largest single location PET plant in the world. It would also be integrated subsequently with another plant, which would be set up in the second phase with a capital outlay of 450 million U.S. dollars. The total tonnage for the port through this industry in phase I and II is close to 4 million tons," Hambana Petrochemicals Limited Director/CEO Abhijit Sen was quoted as saying in the statement. This business venture agreement has been signed for an initial term of 25 years and the expected total investment is 137.39 million U.S. dollars. PET resin is the raw material used in manufacturing PET bottles and containers which is a popular packaging solution for carbonated soft drinks, water, liquor and various food/non-food packaging applications.