Reliance Ind begins polyester capacity expansion

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Wednesday announced that it has started implementing the planned expansion of its domestic projects in the polyester sector. This is the largest capacity expansion from RIL in the sector.

The capacity expansion in phases over the next few years includes a planned capacity of 2.3 million tonnes of polyester capacity at Dahej with the ability to increase it by another 1.15 million tonnes at a later stage. The plants will be integrated with paraxylene plants at Jamnagar for raw material and will in turn cater to the new polyester plants being constructed simultaneously.

The expansion plans also entail setting up of a 395,000 tonnes of polyester filament yarn facility at Silvassa and 140,000 tonnes of polyester texturised yarn facility also in Silvassa.

With an increasing demand for Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), from the packaging and food and beverages sectors, RIL will set up a capacity of 540,000 tonnes production of PET at Dahej with an option to add another 540,000 tonnes of capacity at the same location at a later date.

In Dahej, RIL will also add 290,000 tonnes of Polyester Staple Fibre (PSF) capacity. This is to take advantage of the increasing cotton prices and provide a different substitute for the market.

“It is expected that polyester will capture around 80 per cent of incremental global fibre demand of around 2.9 million tons per annum over the medium to long term,” said RIL in a statement.

All the above projects are under various stages of implementation ranging from technology licensing, basic engineering and obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals.

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