Reliance to invest ₹75,000 cr in petrochemicals, textile biz: Mukesh Ambani

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries plans to invest ₹75,000 crore in its petrochemicals and textile business over the next five years to expand capacities in existing and new value chains. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest producer of polyester fibre and yarn, aims to expand the value chain of Polyester and Vinyl as well as develop new products for the textile industry.

“I am pleased to share that over the next 5 years, we will invest ₹75,000 crore and expand capacities in existing and new value chains. In the Polyester value chain, Vinyl value chain and New Materials,” says Mukesh Ambani at RIL's 45th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday.

Reliance is the world's largest integrated manufacturer of Polyester fibres and yarns under the Recron brand name, with a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum. Recron Partially Oriented Yarn (POY) products are produced using multiple leading process technologies like Barmag, Dupont, Toray, Inventa, Zimmer, etc. to suit various customer requirements.

Speaking at the company's AGM, Ambani says, “In the Polyester value chain, we will build one of the worlds' largest single-train Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) plant of 3 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) capacity at Dahej. We will also invest in a 1 MMTPAPET plant at Dahej. Both PTA and Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) will be targeted for completion by 2026. We will also reinvest in Polyester Filament Yarn (PFY) and Polyester Staple Fibre (PSF). Polyester expansion with capacity of over 1 MMTPA will be completed in phases by 2026.”

In the Vinyl chain, the company aims to more than triple its existing capacity by adding world-scale plants at Dahej and Jamnagar in India, and also in the UAE. “We will aim to complete 1.5 MMTPA of feedstock integrated PVC expansion at Dahej and Jamnagar in phases by 2026. We will also add capacities to make EDC and PVC at Ruwais, in the UAE, as part of Ta'ziz Chemical Zone,” says Ambani.

In line with the company’s vision for new materials, Reliance plans to build in phases India's first and one of the world's largest Carbon Fibre plants at Hazira with a capacity of 20,000 MTPA, based on Acrylonitrile feedstock. “We will commence Acrylonitrile production next year and aim to complete the first phase of the carbon fibre plant in 2025,” RIL chairman says.

He further says that the company will commence Acrylonitrile (ACN) production next year and first phase of carbon fibre in 2025. ACN is a petrochemical product used in the production of a wide range of chemical products (mainly ABS/SAN resins, acrylic fibers, acrylamide, nitrile rubber, adiponitrile, and carbon fibers).

“We will integrate composites business with Carbon Fibre to produce Carbon Fibre composites. Carbon Fibre promises to be a multi decade growth engine for O2C,” he adds.

“Reliance has championed the cause of sustainability through circular economy and is India’s leader in recycling of polyesters and plastics. We will more than double our bottle recycling capacity to 5 billion bottles a year,” says Ambani at the AGM.

He says that scientists have also developed pathways to produce biodegradable and compostable plastics to completely replace single-use plastics.

The Reliance Group Chairman also unveiled his company’s aim to turn net carbon zero by 2035 as part of its commitment to support climate change by focusing on new affordable climate friendly energy and materials. He said that the renewable energy consumption at Reliance jumped by 352% within one year.

In the annual report for FY22, which was released earlier this month, Mukesh Ambani told shareholders about RIL’s green transformation plan to become one of the world’s leaders in the fight against the crisis of climate change. In FY22, RIL set up the Reliance New Energy Council (NEC) to identify opportunities and engage in partnerships worldwide.