The Indian multinational conglomerate company, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), will invest in capacity expansion in the polyester value chain over the next five years, Chairman Mukesh Ambani said recently while addressing the 45th Annual General Meeting (post-IPO) of the company. The company will also build one of the world’s largest carbon fibre plants.
“In the Polyester value chain, we will build one of the world’s largest single-train PTA (purified terephthalic acid) plant of 3 MMTPA capacity at Dahej. We will also invest in a 1 MMTPA PET plant at Dahej. Both PTA and 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,” Ambani said at the AGM.
Consistent with the company’s vision for New Materials, RIL will 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 (ACN) feedstock, Ambani announced. “We will commence acrylonitrile production next year and aim to complete the first phase of the carbon fibre plant in 2025.”
RIL has plans to further integrate its composites business with carbon fibre to produce carbon fibre composites. Besides other applications, carbon fibre composites are also used to meet the rapidly growing light-weight requirements of mobility and renewable energy.
The company will invest Rs. 75,000 cr over the next five years for polyester value chain expansion, the building of carbon fibre plant, and plastic capacity expansion.
Speaking about sustainability, Ambani said, “Reliance has championed the cause of sustainability through circular economy and is India’s leader in recycling of polyesters and plastics. We will strengthen our leadership position in PET recycling by more than doubling our bottle recycling capacity to 5 bn bottles a year.”
