Reliance’s PTA to start up in 2006

19 April 2004 00:01  [Source: ACN]

RELIANCE Industries will be starting up a 640 000 tonne/year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Hazira, Gujarat, India, in Q2 2006, said a source close to the project.

Reliance also planned to add a combined 500 000 tonne/year of polyester staple fibre (PSF) and polyester filament yarn (PFY) capacity at its Hazira complex before the start-up of the PTA plant, the source said. However, no further details were available about the proposed PSF and PFY capacity additions.

Construction of the proposed PTA plant was set to start in the next three months, the source said. Kvaerner and Zimmer have already been signed on as the engineering, procurement and construction contractors for the project.

Reliance had selected Invista as its technology licensor for the project, the source added. Mitsubishi Chemical and BP Chemicals were the two other potential licensors that Reliance had considered.

A source close to Reliance had told ACN last November that the company planned to add 1m tonne of PTA capacity in the next five years, and that the capacity addition would be pursued in two phases (ACN 16 November 2003).

The source had said that the extra capacity would be linked to expansions in feedstock paraxylene (PX) and derivative polyester capacities.

And last July, the chairman of Reliance, Mukesh Ambani, announced that PX and orthoxylene (OX) capacities would be increased by 600 000 tonne/year over the next three to five years (ACN 7 July 2003).

Reliance has a PTA capacity of 1.28m tonne/year, 1.65m tonne/year in PX and OX, 300 000 tonne/year in PSF and 300 000 tonne/year in PFY. However, the source close to the PTA project told ACN late last month that Reliance would not pursue the proposed PX capacity addition in the short term, as crude prices were too high. But the company had enough PX to support the PTA project, he said.

Reliance had also decided not to increase its monoethylene glycol (MEG) capacity for the time being, as ethylene costs were too high, the source added.

The company plans to source from the spot market the additional MEG required for the proposed PSF and PFY expansions.

Reliance currently has an MEG capacity of 360 000 tonne/year in Hazira.

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