Lubrizol to invest $150 million for growth in India

WICKLIFFE, Ohio—Specialty chemicals company Lubrizol Corp. plans to invest more than $150 million in several projects across India.

That includes “breaking ground on India’s largest chlorinated PVC (CPVC) resin plant in Vilayat, Gujarat, doubling capacity at its site in Dahej, Gujarat, opening a grease lab in Navi Mumbai and enabling significant in-country job growth and innovation,” the company said in a news release.

Lubrizol, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is based in Wickliffe. The company’s investment in India began back in 1966 with chemical additives manufacturing.

The release highlighted that the CPVC resin plant, done in partnership with Grasim Industries Ltd., would be the “world’s largest.” The project will break ground later this year. In addition to growing CPVC compound capacity in Dahej, Gujarat, Lubrizol planned to create a “local R&D center, which will be its second global R&D center after North America,” the release stated.

“India is among the fastest-growing global economies with a favorable climate for business investment, including regional growth in many of the industries we support,” said Lubrizol president and CEO Rebecca Liebert in the release. “We are building on 50 years of success in India by adding new manufacturing, lab and R&D sites, supporting in-country innovation and adding jobs that capitalize on the great expanding workforce and business conditions in India, allowing us to serve needs not only in India but in surrounding countries.”