Recognising the needs of the Thai nylon textile industry for reliable source of high quality caprolactam, in order to upgrade itself and remain competitive in the world market, and the development of Thailand as the centre of region for automobile manufacturing which will substantially drive up the demand for engineering nylon plastic, the Thai Government earmarked caprolactam as one of the upstream petrochemical projects which formed the integral part of the master development plan of Thailand for the petrochemical industry. With strong experience and commitment in developing the local petrochemical industry, and the advanced technology from its technical partner, UBE Industries Limited, TPI Group through Thai Caprolactam Co., Ltd. Won the hotly contested bid to become the promoter of the first caprolactam plant in Southeast Asia. Thai Caprolactam, which was set up on December 13, 1990, was granted investment promotional privileges from the Board of Investment in May 1991, making the project one of the largest industrial undertakings at the time. Given the heavy capital investment budget of over US$ 400 million and the complex technology involved, it took two years of planning and organising before the project could finally kick off with the signing of joint venture agreement on April 30, 1993 among the principal sponsors, consisting of TPI Polene Public Company Limited (49%), Thai Petrochemical Industry Public Company Limited (2%), UBE Industries Limited (27.5%) and Marubeni (10%). The signing of the various engineering, procurement and construction contracts followed four months later, while financing for the project was wrapped up in April 1994. Despite many obstacles, such as the Kobe earthquake which delayed some shipments, unprecedented heavy flood at the site and labour shortages caused by large number of heavy industrial projects under construction in the Eastern Seaboard, the project was completed on schedule and a production test run commenced in August 1996. The Company changed its status to a public company in June 1994 given its intention to list its shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Although Thai Caprolactam Public Company Limited eventually received approvals from the Securities Exchange Commission and the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the initial public shares offering has been indefinitely postponed due to the unfavorable market conditions on the local stock market. The Company plans to reapply for listing in 1998.