RIL ups petchem output 4% on higher utilisation

17 January 2008 13:59  [Source: ICIS news]

MUMBAI (ICIS news)--India’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) reported a 4% year-on-year increase in petrochemical production to 14.5m tonnes/year for the nine-month period ended December 31, mainly boosted by the higher utilisation capacity at its Jamnagar refinery, the company said on Thursday.

For the period, the refinery produced atup to 96% of its capacity, which is higher than the global capacity utilisation rate, it said.

The company saw a 4% rise in polymers production at 2.5m tonnes/year compared with the same nine-month period the year before.

The increase in production is attributed to the full impact of the new PP plant at Jamnagar and also to the scheduled maintenance shutdown of the cracker and downstream plants at Hazira during the corresponding period of the previous year.

RIL continues to be India’s largest producer of polymers with a domestic market share of 69%, it added.

The company said polyester production was up 5% to 1.16m tonnes/year, adding that it now has a domestic market share in excess of 51% in polyester.

RIL's polyester intermediates production was up 10% from the year-ago period to 3.48m tonnes/year.

"The production increase is attributed to the new 730,000 tonne/year PTA plant at Hazira which was commissioned in the second quarter of the 2006-2007 financial year, partially offset by a planned shutdown of its paraxylene unit at Jamnagar in the third quarter," the company added.

The Jamnagar refinery processed 23.7m tonnes/year of crude. However, capacity utilisation was lower in October 2007 due to the shutdown of a crude distillation unit.

During the period, linear alkyl benzene (LAB) production remained unchanged at 128,000 tonnes/year.

The configuration at the Jamnagar refinery allowed RIL the flexibility to focus on the production of middle distillate products such as gasoil , jet fuel and  kerosene, where margins remained firm with strong global demand, the company added.

By: Isha Jha
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