Indian conglomerate Adani Group to diversify into petrochemicals

MUMBAI (ICIS)–India’s Adani Enterprises Ltd has incorporated a wholly-owned petrochemicals subsidiary to mark its foray into the business.

The subsidiary called Adani Petrochemicals Ltd (APL) will “carry on business of setting up refineries, petrochemicals complexes, specialty chemicals units, hydrogen and related chemical plants and other such similar units,” Adani in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) over the weekend.

APL has yet to become operational.

In January 2019, Adani had signed an agreement with German chemical company BASF to set up a chemical complex at Mundra in western Gujarat state.

In October 2019, the deal was expanded to include UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Austria’s Borealis.

Total investment for the planned chemical complex was estimated at around $4bn.

The complex will comprise a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant, a polypropylene (PP) unit and an acrylics value chain comprising glacial acrylic acid (GAA), butanol, 2-ethylhexanol (2-EH), butyl acrylate and other downstream products, according to ADNOC in 2019.

The project, however, was put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic, BASF had said in November 2020.

Adani Group also has plans to build a 2m tonne/year coal-to-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant at Mundra.

The Indian conglomerate has interests in coal, logistics, energy, agriculture, real estate, public transport infrastructure, among others.

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