The Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is setting up petrochemicals downstream projects with an expected investment of Rs 30,000 crore at its Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Jamnagar.
The RIL has sent invitation to Dow Chemicals, Royal Dutch/Shell, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Nippon, ExxonMobil, Huntman and Borealis for the projects. The RIL has made meticulous presentations before the companies during the last few days.
In the meantime, the Gujarat government sanctioned the project, paving the way for approvals from the central government.
The petrochemical giant intends to erect a 30 million ton capacity refinery in the SEZ near Jamnagar at an investment of Rs 20,000 crore.
Sources said that the RIL has invited the world leaders in petrochemical to concentrate on five major polymer products - polypropylene (PP), PVC, PTA, LDPE and isopropyl alcohol (IPA).
With IPCL, The RIL is the India's biggest producer of polymer products except IPA. In case of LDPE, the total capacity of the RIL and the IPCL is near a million tons per annum. For PVC, the company's capacity is approximately half a million tons.
The RIL's SEZ would give these polymer giants an opportunity to cash on the Indian as well as the global polymer market, which is expanding at an average rate of 8 to 10 percent.
All the five polymer products marked out for them have incredible growth opportunity in India and in China. Problems of refining capacities in Europe and logistical matters have compelled them to find production facilities outside the US and Europe.