RIL Jamnagar SEZ exports to cross INR 50,000 crore

Coming out of the shadows after facing a slump in the global petrochemicals market, Reliance Industries special economic zone in Jamnagar is likely to emerge as one of the largest SEZs in the country.

Mr Upendra Vasishth Development Commissioner of Reliance Jamnagar SEZ told Business Standard that “Reliance SEZ is expected to export goods worth at least INR 50,000 crore by March 2010. This will be the largest in terms of exports compared with any other SEZ in the country.”

In 2008-09 exports from all SEZs in India had been pegged at INR 99,500 crore of which exports from SEZs in Gujarat stood at INR 26,000 crore. This financial year exports from all the SEZs are poised to touch INR 170,000 crore, according to Vasishth. The INR 25,000 crore Jamnagar Export Refinery Project located in the SEZ became functional on December 25th 2008. But it became fully operational only in July this year. Exports from the refinery have already touched INR 18,000 crore till August 31.

JERP has added nearly 20% to the country’s refinery capacity and has made RIL the largest crude oil refining company in India. The refining capacity of JERP is 29 million tonnes per annum and its exports are primarily aimed at the US and European markets. The refinery produces about 31 kilo tonnes a day of diesel, 25 kilo tonnes a day of petrol along with sulphur, pet coke, fuel oil and naphtha.

The polypropylene plant in the SEZ also has a capacity of about a million tonnes per annum and the plant is working full throttle to cater to heavy export orders, according to company sources.

Sources said that Reliance is also in the process of setting up a C2/C3 cracker unit in JERP to produce downstream products like methyl ethyl glycol low density polyethylene and low density polyethylene.

(Sourced from http://www.steelguru.com/news/index/2009/09/23/MTEzMDU1/RIL_Jamnagar_SEZ_exports_to_cross_INR_50%252C000_crore.html)