RIL plans polyester chain capacity expansion

RD Udeshi, president of polyester chain, says investment will be around $4 bn

In keeping with the country's target of achieving $500 billion textile exports, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) again reiterated its plans to expand polyester chain capacity from current 7.5 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes.

Speaking on the sidelines of 'INTEXCON 2014, an international conference on textiles, RD Udeshi, president (polyester chain), RIL said, "We are expanding the entire value chain of polyester including PTA. The investment will be around $4 billion and the capacity will be increased from 7.5 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes."

Udeshi added that the additional capacity will commission in three years.  As part of the expansion, the company is also doing road shows, he said.  "We are trying to do road shows across India. We did in Mumbai, Surat and other parts of the country," Udeshi added.

Earlier, while speaking during the conference, Udeshi said that the country has set a target of $500 billion textile exports wherein polyester will have to play a major role. As part of that, in around eight years, RIL plans to increase polyester capacity from 4.5 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes, Udeshi stated in his speech.

As part of pre Vibrant Gujarat Summit events, the international conference was jointly organised by Diagonal Consulting and Textile Excellence on 'India - Opportunities for Global Investment in Textiles'.