It is "work in progress" at SFA with what it claims to be the biggest book plant in India - on a 65 acre plot. The new unit which is the size of a football pitch has an array of Kolbus, Aster and Sigloch equipment. A fleet of post-press kit is expected to be added on the one lakh sqft pillarless shopfloor.

Likewise there is Lovely Offset which is expanding on its 23-acre plot.

Lovely has a 60,000 sq ft book plant which houses a brand-new Heidelberg and an array of book printing kit from Muller Martini for soft-cover and hard-cover book binding equipment.

The unit has two Ventura book sewing machines, a Diamant MC 35 bookline and Horauf BDM 45 case maker. For softcover production it has an Acoro A5 perfect binder with Online Merit S trimmer, plus the Prima S saddle-stitcher.

The company is erecting a brand-new plant which is adjacent to the existing unit. K Selvakumar director of Lovely Offset said: "40% of book production in the new unit will be for exports."

The biggest news in Sivakasi is Noida-based Gopsons Papers setting up a 17.5 acre plant near Sivakasi. The company was in the news at Ipex for the purchase of two new four-colour + IR drier KBA RA 130a presses.

Vasant Goel of Gopsons said: "We have purchased the land and will start construction by end of June."

The company expects to beging commercial production  by Q1 2011. The plant will produce books for both export and domestic market.  The capacities in phase 1 will be 35,000 hardcover books per day, 1,50,000 paperback books per day and saddle wire - 1,25,000 per day.