SABIC Innovative mulls India polymerisation plant

30 October 2007 16:55  [Source: ICIS news]

MUMBAI (ICIS news)--SABIC Innovative Plastics is mulling the setting up of a rupees (Rs) 5bn ($127m) polymerisation plant in India, with an expected nameplate capacity of 100,000 tonnes/year, a senior company official said on Tuesday.

"The minimum capacity of such a plant must be 100,000 tonnes/year in order to achieve economies of scale and demand in India has now risen to that level," Prabir Das, vice president of the company's commercial resins segment told ICIS news on the sidelines of the Asian Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Conference.

"We carried out a feasibility study a few years back for a polymerisation plant but nothing materialised as demand was only around 30,000 tonne/year at that time," Das said.

The main hurdle for investing in such a facility would be raw material - benzene - availability, he added.

"Around 10m tonnes/year of Benzene is currently manufactured in India and we are not sure if enough feedstock for a plant of this scale would be available," Das said.

The conference is jointly organised by ICIS and the Indian Chemical Council and it concluded on 30 October. 

($1 = Rs39.32)

By: Divya Chowdhury
+65 6780 4359

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