RIL joins hands with Russia’s SIBUR to set up rubber plant at Jamnagar

India Russia trade relations received a significant boost during the official visit of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to India with a private sector company in the country and a leading Russian petrochemical company SIBUR today announcing a joint venture for the production of butyl rubber in India.

A company press release said the joint venture facility would have an initial capacity of 100,00 tonnes of butyl rubber at RIL's integrated refining-cum-petrochemical site in Jamnagar.

The facility is expected to be commissioned by 2013 and the estimated investment in the project is $ 450 million. The plant will initially produce regular butyl rubber and is expected to produce other types of butyl rubber specialities in the future. 

SIBUR will provide its proprietary technology for butyl rubber polymerisation and finishing, with RIL supplying monomers and will provide the JV with world-class infrastructure and utilities. The majority stake in the venture will be from RIL.

According to a CNBC-TV18 report, executive director of RIL, NR Meswani, commenting on the development said,  ''This is a significant step towards Reliance's commitment to service India's growing automotive sector by bringing in complex technologies, available with only a very few companies globally. The setting up of domestic manufacturing of butyl rubber will fulfil a long standing demand of the Indian tyre and rubber industry and this investment is part of Reliance's vision of emerging as a significant global payer in the synthetic rubber business.''

According to SIBUR's president Dmitry Konov SIBUR had unique technologies for the production of synthetic rubber, which in partnership with Reliance would cater to the growing needs of the Indian tyre industry with high-quality raw material.

Butyl rubber finds application in a number of prouducts including tyre inner tubes and electrical cables.