Growth of India Petrochemical Industry

Growth ofIndia petrochemical industry is playing a major part in the growth of the economy and the development of the manufacturing sector. The petrochemicals industry provides more value addition to theIndian economy than most of the other companies.

Petrochemicals are obtained from different chemical compounds which are by-products of crude oil refining. Most of them fall may be categorized into hydrocarbons. With the fractional distillation of the crude oil, chemicals like naphtha, kerosene, petroleum gases, ethane, methane, propane, and butane are the primary stocks used in the petrochemical industry for the production of various other chemical compounds.

Presently, the extent of penetration of the petrochemical products in day-to-day use is vast. It actually covers most of the domain of existence such as apparels, accessories, household items, furniture, electronics, construction, housing, automobiles, medical appliances, packaging, horticulture, and agriculture.

TheIndia petrochemical industry originated in the 1970s and entered the arena of the industries ofIndia. This sector was subjected to rapid growth in the period between the 1980s and 1990s. Even today, expectations from this sector are sky-high. TheIndian petrochemical industry for it part is doing very well and has been contributing significantly to the country's GDP fro several years now. TheIndia petrochemical industry primarily consists of synthetic rubber i.e. elastomer, yarn of synthetic fiber, synthetic detergent intermediates, performance plastics, plastic processing industry, and polymers.

The Bongaigaon refinery was set up as an experimental one with the capacity of a refinery and a petrochemical unit. The success of this integrated petroleum refinery-cum-petrochemicals unit led to a spree of activities in this sector. Many such units were established to boost production capabilities. With the growth ofIndia petrochemical industry, it holds the share of around 20% of the total global produce of petrochemical related products.

In the present scenario, 5 naphtha and 3 gas cracker coordination compounds are in operation with ethane production capability of around 2.6 million tons every year, jointly. Along with this, another 4 aromatic coordination compounds are in operation with a xylene production capability of around 2.1 million tons.

Last Updated on 13 December 2011