New projects to boost Reliance’s India petchem capacity

(adds paragraphs 9-12 on elastomers, acetyls projects)

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Reliance Industries’ petrochemical capacity in India is expected to grow by 67% to 25m tonnes/year when all its ongoing projects come on stream, company chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said on Thursday.

“Our current capacity of petrochemicals is 15m tonnes spread over 10 manufacturing locations in India,” said Ambani at Reliance’s annual shareholders meeting.

“Our aspiration is to be among the five largest and most profitable petrochemicals producers globally with a diversified portfolio on the Indian market,” he said.

The company has embarked on a number of projects to take full advantage of the feedstock integration and the domestic growth opportunity in India.

Among the projects being pursued is a gas cracker at Jamnagar, “which will be amongst the largest in the world” and a world-scale 1.8m-tonne paraxylene (PX) plant, he said.

Reliance is also doubling its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) capacity to 4.3m tonnes and expanding its polyester portfolio by 1.5m tonnes, Ambani said.

“Implementation of all our projects has begun in full earnest and we expect to see production from newly commissioned projects in phases starting from 12 months to 36 months from today,” he said.

Increasing urbanisation in India is a source of new and sustainable demand for products particularly plastics, fibres and chemicals in the areas of agriculture, housing, retailing, infrastructure, apparels and automobiles, Ambani said.

Banking on India’s emergence as a hub for automobile production, Reliance is also building a new global scale business in elastomers, said Ambani.

“The elastomers business will seek to supply to this rapidly growing market,” he said.

“We are building capacity across the full range of synthetic rubbers at Hazira and Jamnagar,” Ambani said.

Reliance is also building an acetyls portfolio to cater to the rapidly growing coatings, adhesives and paints markets in India, he said.

The company’s new projects “will transform our portfolio to include value-added products and higher-margin specialities”, the company chairman said.