Reliance Industries Ltd is pitching for petrochemicals downstream projects with a projected investment of Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) at its special economic zone (SEZ) in Jamnagar.
The RIL has invited Dow Chemicals, Royal Dutch/Shell, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Nippon, ExxonMobil, Huntman and Borealis for the projects. The RIL has made detailed presentations before these companies during the last few days.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat government cleared the SEZ project on Tuesday, paving the way for necessary approvals from the Central government.
The commerce ministry will review the project on Friday.
The petrochemical major plans to set up a 30 million tonne capacity refinery in the SEZ near Jamnagar at an investment of Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion).
Sources told Business Standard that the RIL has invited the global petrochemical majors to focus on five major polymer products -- polypropylene (PP), PVC, PTA, LDPE and isopropyl alcohol (IPA).
The RIL, along with the IPCL, is the country's largest manufacturer of polymer products except IPA. In case of LDPE, the total capacity of the RIL and the IPCL is close to a million tonnes per annum. For PVC, the company's capacity is around half a million tonnes.
When contacted, RIL executives declined to comment saying, "several proposals were in the pipeline."
The RIL's SEZ near Jamnagar would provide these global polymer majors an opportunity to tap the Indian as well as the global polymer market which is growing at an average rate of 8 to 10 per cent.
All five polymer products earmarked for them have tremendous growth potential in India as well as in China. Problems related to refining capacities in Europe and logistical issues have forced them to look for production facilities outside the US and Europe.
At present, ExxonMobil Chemical is the world's largest producer of IPA and has its production base at the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, (USA) plant.
One of the world's largest polymer producer, Dow Chemicals has been on the lookout for investment opportunities in the Indian petrochemicals business even before the IPCL was disinvested. ExxonMobil, Shell and Mitsubishi Chemicals were also present in the first round of due diligence of IPCL but pulled out at a later stage.
Size matters
RIL's planned investments
