Mangalore Special Economic Zone Limited in talks for 500,000 tpa PDH plant

09-Oct-13

India's Mangalore Special Economic Zone Limited (MSEZL), an entity dedicated to setting up new petrochemical companies in Mangalore, is in talks with several companies for constructing a 500,000 tpa propane dehydrogenation plant in Mangalore, as per a source in Platts. MSEZl wants the plant to be constructed over the next two-and-a-half years. Investment outlay is estimated at Rs 25 billion (US$404 mln). The capacity of the proposed PDH unit may be raised to 700,000 tpa if there is a suitable expression of interest from a company, the source said. MSEZL is also talking to several other companies to set up plants that will use propylene as a feedstock. "We are interested in companies that will manufacture products like oxo-alcohols, propylene oxide and propylene carbonate," the source said. About 35-40 companies, most of them downstream converters, are expected to set up plants at MSEZL's 1,800-hectare campus in Mangalore. MSEZL is also setting up a 10-km direct pipeline-cum-road corridor connecting its units to New Mangalore Port. ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited, which is the anchor tenant at the MSEZL campus, is currently in the process of bringing onstream a 920,000 tpa PX and 270,000 tpa benzene plant at the complex. The plant's startup is due for January 2014. OMPL has already loaded catalysts on its plants. JBF Industries is also building a 1.25 mln tpa purified terephthalic acid plant at the MSEZL campus, the source said. The plant, estimated to cost US$600 mln, is slated for completion by end-2014.