Page 52 - Plastcs News August 2017

BuSINESS NEWS

RIL Q1 net profit up 28% to Rs Oil refiners to invest US$35

9,108 crore bln into petrochemicals to

meet an expected surge in
eliance Industries
RL imit e d (RI L ) demand
reported its financial il refiners Indian Oil Corp (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum
performance for the oCorp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp
quarter ended 30th Ltd (HPCL), are planning a US$35 bln impetus into
June, 2017. Accordingl petrochemicals to meet an expected surge in demand
to reports the Revenue for goods as per Reuters. The drive comes as the
increased by 26.7% to government seeks to promote durable, cheaper
INR90,537 crore (US$14 materials in industries such as farming and food
bln. PBDIT increased by packaging, while refiners eye long-term threats to
8.1% to INR 14,692 crore (US$2.3 bln). Its Profit Before their business from renewable energy and a shift to
Tax increased by 9.1% to INR10,536 crore (US$1.6 bln) electric vehicles.
while the cash profit increased by 11.7% to INR11,252 India's per capita consumption of synthetic polymers,
crore (US$1.7 bln) for instance, used to make various grades of plastics,
the net Profit (excluding exceptional items) increased by is just 10 kg (22 lbs) a year, compared with a global
12.8% to INR8,021 crore (US$1.2 bln) . Commenting on average of about 32 kg. "India is one of the fastest
the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing growing economies globally, but our petrochemical
Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “our Company use is one-fourth the world average. We import
recorded yet another strong quarterly performance with half of our petchem consumption," said S. Mitra,
net profit of INR 9,108 crore, up 28% Y-o-Y. executive member at trade body, the Chemical and
Petrochemical Manufacturing Association.
Our industry leading portfolio of assets in the refining
and petrochemicals business contributed to considerable BPCL and HPCL will each spend about US$15 bln over
improvement in our earnings for the quarter. Retail five years to raise the industry's share of their total
business also witnessed accelerated growth momentum revenue to 10%, executives from both the companies
with YoY revenue growth of 74%. Jio has revolutionised said. IOCL will invest INR 300 million (US$4.7 bln)
the Indian telecom and data consumption landscape. over the next 5-7 years, top executives said, boosting
This digital services business has been built to address revenue from petrochemicals from a quarter to a third
the entire value chain across the digital services domain of total revenue. Together, the three firms plan to
with smart applications to make life simple, beautiful invest 2.7 trillion rupees ($42.3 billion) to build the
and secure. over the last four decades, Reliance has world's biggest crude refinery with capacity of 1.2
continued to grow and evolve by creating value through million barrels per day (bpd) on the country's west
building competitive global scale businesses and delivering coast, which will be linked to a petrochemical plant.
increasing shareholder returns. over the past 3-4 years, Indian oil also plans to expand its Panipat and Paradip
we made significant investments in new plants, thus petrochemical plants and build a new complex at it
creating organic growth platforms for our energy and Koyali refiner.
materials businesses. Full commissioning of new PX HPCL, along with smaller refiner GAIL (India) Ltd, is
facility at Jamnagar during the quarter will strengthen building a 1.1 mln tpa petchem project in southern
the integration within our polyester chain. Ramp-up of India, while BPCL plans a petrochemical complex
ethane import project has helped in diversifying feedstock at its Bina facility in central Madhya Pradesh state
sources and mitigating risks for our existing crackers at and is commissioning another at its Kochi facility in
Dahej and Hazira. southern Kerala.

Plastics News | August 2017 52