S P Lohia group company Indo Rama Petrochemicals Ltd is set for expansion and plans to set up a 704,000 tonnes per year of purified terephthalic acid plant at an investment of $450 million in the Rayong province of Thailand.

IPL CEO S P Lohia said the company was deploying Dupont technology to produce PTA and the plant was expected to commence production by the beginning of 2006.

Giving details of the funding of the project, Lohia said the company had tied up with Krung Thai Bank for financial support of about $240 million for the project. The promoters will bring in $90 million as equity.

"We plan to get additional assistance of $120 million from foreign banks to further increase capacity of the plant to 800,000 tonnes a year," he said in a release.

Thailand already produces about 1,380,000 tonnes of PTA per annum, mostly for export to China and Pakistan.