RIL and Russia’s Sibur to set up butyl rubber JV in India

Setting its sights on the rapidly growing Indian tyre market on the back of rising automobile sales, Reliance Industries Limited has entered into a deal with Russian petrochemical giant Sibur to set up a joint venture to manufacture butyl rubber in India, used for making tyres.

Sibur is the leader of petrochemical sector in Russia and Eastern Europe. It operates across the entire petrochemical process chain from gas processing to the production of monomers and plastics, mineral fertilizers, tyres and industrial rubber items, as well as processing plastics.

Sibur, controlled by Gazprom, Russia's biggest oil and gas company, produces over 2000 different brands of products. The company, which is managed along product-division lines - hydrocarbon feedstock, synthetic rubbers, plastics and organic synthesis products, mineral fertilisers and tyres -  processes more than half of APG and produces 23 per cent of propylene, 23 per cent of polypropylene, 17 per cent of polyethylene, from 30 per cent to 49 per cent of different rubbers, 34 per cent of tires, 16 per cent of nitrogen fertilisers, and considerable part of other petrochemical products in Russian market.

Under the deal, RIL will supply monomers and provide the infrastructure and utilities, while Moscow-based Sibur will provide proprietary technology for butyl rubber polymerisation and its finishing.

According to Reliance, butyl rubber, mainly used to make inner tubes of tires for all types of vehicles, will be manufactured at RIL's integrated petrochemical complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat.

The two companies have not disclosed the holding pattern in the JV or financial details of the deal.