In the 39th Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Mukesh Ambani discussed his plans to increase their polyester production capacity from the current 2.5 million tons per year (tpy) to 4 million tpy. He further added that the company would invest Rs 1500 billion over the next three years spread across all its five business segments – exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and 4G.
Reliance had set a stupendous fleet to become a market player in oil and gas in the past years. But now recognizing the increasing demand in the industry, it is willing to accelerate its polyester manufacturing capacities. It has commenced the planned implementation of world-scale projects in India across the polyester chain. RIL has the largest capacity to expand in this sector and it is aiming to reinforce its position as the largest polyester producer across the world. Mukesh Ambani laid out the roadmap for its massive expansion. “These investments in new polyester capacity will also strengthen India’s position as a global manufacturing hub for textiles and fibre. It is expected that polyester will capture around 80 percent of incremental global fibre demand of around 2.9 million tons per annum over the medium to long term,” RIL said. Mukesh Ambani said the company is currently focusing solely on increasing its production capacity by 1.5 million tpy from the current rate of production. He also added that an additional polyester filament yarn plant will be set up at Silvassa September in this year. This plant will function in an eco-friendly way, producing zero-waste from day one. In addition to this, a polyester resin plant would be set in Dahej which will alleviate RIL to become seventh largest manufacturer of polyester resin in the world. Capturing the polyester market is a good move for RIL owing to the market scenario currently. There are global supply constraints, inflation and variable outlook for cotton availability has led to creation of opportunities for polyester products like polyester filament yarn (PFY) and polyester staple fibre (PSF). RIL in this case has an upper hand as it has strong manufacturing presence in India and Malaysia. It also an unique position in the market owing to its cost leadership and wide range of products.
According to the plans of RIL in the first half of 2014-15 would commission one million ton purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant, followed by another 1 million ton plant within the next six months. This will elongate the company’s total capacity to 4.3 million tpy , making the company the third largest PTA producer in the world. Mr.Ambani also added that RIL will double its production of paraxylene (PX) capacity in near future and become world’s second largest producer of PX. PX is used as a feedstock for PTA and polyester manufacturing.
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