India's Reliance on track for new PTA, PX, polyester projects

26 October 2010 07:21  [Source: ICIS news]

MUMBAI (ICIS)--India’s Reliance Industries is on track with its plans for two new worldscale purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plants and investments in paraxylene (PX), polyester and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a source close to the company said on Tuesday.

“The first PTA plant of 1.1m tonnes/year at Dahej, Gujarat, is scheduled to start up in the first quarter of 2013, and the second one will start 6-12 months later,” he said.

Invista would supply technology for the first plant, which would have a single reactor, while Reliance was still evaluating technology options for the second plant, he added.

Part of the feedstock requirement for the PTA line would be covered by Reliance’s 1.7m tonne/year PX plant at Jamnagar, the source said.

The rest would come from a new 1.3-1.5m tonne/year PX train, also at Jamnagar, which was scheduled to start operations in 2013, the source added.

The new PTA volumes would feed the company’s downstream polyester investments at Silvassa, Gujarat, which included a 560,000 tonne/year PET plant and a 360,000 tonne/year partially oriented yarn (POY) unit, he said.

The POY project was already under implementation and should be completed in the next two years while the PET plant would be commissioned in the first quarter of 2013, the source added.

“Silvassa is a texturising hub and Reliance already has a unit there which will be integrated with the new POY unit,” he said.

Reliance also has plans for a new monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant at Jamnagar which would be downstream of the company’s proposed cracker complex that is due to start up in 2014, said the source.

Reliance’s investments in the polyester chain come at a time when India was projected to see robust demand growth, the source said.

Polyester demand should grow by 10-12% annually supported by steady economic growth, the source pointed out.

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By: Malini Hariharan
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