Public sector petroleum refining company Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) plans to set up a 1,20,000 tonne styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) manufacturing facility at Panipat in partnership with Taiwan’s TSRC Corporation and Japan’s Marubeni Corporation.
An agreement was signed on Saturday by the three sides to float a JV. The proposed unit will use butadiene feed from IOC’s Panipat naphtha cracker complex. IOC will hold 50% equity in the SBR project, TSRC 30% and Marubeni 20%. Developers have targeted to complete the project, which is estimated to cost Rs 900 crore, by September 2012. The agreement was signed by IOC chairman BM Bansal, TSRC’s chief executive officer Wei-Hua Tu and K Hatta, managing executive officer, Marubeni.
SBR is a specialty petrochemical product with a robust growing demand in India. It is used as a key input in the manufacture of products like automotive tyres, conveyors, fan belts. Currently, India lacks an operating SBR capacity and the entire domestic demand is met through imports.