Construction of a butyl rubber plant, a joint venture between Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and SIBUR, Russia‘s largest petrochemical company, is expected to kick off in next six months in Jamnagar, as per indrus.in.
The joint venture Reliance Sibur Elastomers Private Limited was formed in the beginning of 2012, although the project was announced earlier in 2010 during a visit of former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to India. RIL holds a 74.9 percent stake in the joint venture, while SIBUR enjoys 25.1% share. While Reliance will construct the plant, SIBUR will provide the technology. SIBUR will handle implementing the technology, launching the plant, and training Indian engineers and workers. The subsidiary recently opened an office in Mumbai to coordinate the Jamnagar project and find some new opportunities in Indian petrochemical industry. The Jamnagar butyl rubber plant is expected to be launched in mid-2014. The facility will have a production capacity of 100,000 tpa. About 75,000 tons will be supplied in domestic market, according to the current demand volumes. The rest may be exported to other Asian countries where demand for butyl rubber is also high. Investing US$450 million, the joint venture expects to reach a turnover of US$700 million in the first year of production.
Reliance Sibur Elastomers will be the first manufacturer of butyl rubber in India. At present India’s demand for butyl rubber is created mainly by the tyre industry and is fully supplied by imports from North America, Central Asia and European countries, including Russia. However, having the world’s largest oil refining-cum-petrochemical site in Jamnagar built by Reliance in the last 10 years and having the combined capacity of 62 mln tons opens a new opportunity of domestic production of butyl rubber.
11-Oct-12 
{{comment.DateTimeStampDisplay}}
{{comment.Comments}}