By Malini Hariharan (Malini is now joint blogger for Asian Chemical Connections)
It pays to have a domestic focus and Reliance Industries has shown this again in its results for the first half of fiscal 2009-10.
Its petrochemicals division delivered Rs43bn in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), a 23.8% growth over the same period last year. The company attributed this to higher margins on improved domestic realisation. The concentration on India helped the company maintain nearly 100% utilisation and hold inventory at low levels.
The Indian market often gets lost in the larger Asian/global picture which is very much dominated by China. But this market has been seeing steady demand growth since last year and it is one of the few markets to have expanded despite the economic crisis.
Reliance estimated PP demand growth at 28% in the last six months; PE at 15%; PVC at 36% and polyester at 15%. Packaging, infrastructure and auto sectors were the key drivers.
The company anticipated a stable margin environment in 2010 as India is expected to keep growing. It also emphasised that it would continue its ‘predominantly domestic market orientation in order to sustain high operating rates’ – a plan that will no doubt be helped, in the case of PP, by hefty anti dumping duties imposed on imports from Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Oman. A second investigation on PP imports from South Korea, Taiwan and the US is due to be launched soon and there have also been reports of producers asking for an investigation into PE imports.
Expanding the domestic focus will not be easy. India is oversupplied in PP and likely to remain so for another couple of years despite the high demand growth numbers. PE would also be oversupplied once Indian Oil Corp starts its new cracker complex.
IOC expects to achieve mechanical completion of the cracker by the end of this month and start commissioning activity in December. The derivative plants (PE, PP and MEG) are likely to start at end-March or early April.
This is the schedule on paper. But given the many project delays around the world, don’t be too surprised if this one also slips.