Swedish specialty chemicals company Perstorp has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India’s Maharashtra Industrial Development Corp. (MIDC) as part of the country’s “Make in India” initiative.

The “Make in India” program was launched in September 2014 as part of a country-wide plan to simplify doing business and encourage investment in the country.

The MoU is Perstorp’s first step in a process to evaluate opportunities for building a world-scale pentaerythritol plant to satisfy the country’s fast growing coatings demand.

Perstorp’s president and CEO, Jan Secher, said the pentaerythritol business forms an integral part of its strategy to grow in the Asia-Pacific region. “An investment in India would further build upon and strengthen our number one position in the global market,” he commented.

In July 2015, Perstorp acquired the pentaerythritol business from Japan’s Koei Chemical. The chemical is used in alkyd resins for coatings, radiation curing monomers, polyurethanes, rosin esters, synthetic lubricants and explosives.

Perstorp currently produces pentaerythritol at three plants, located in Germany, Sweden and the US.