RIL's Jamnagar unit beats the heat on SEZs

At a time when developers are increasingly scrapping their special economic zone (SEZ) projects, Reliance Industries’ SEZ at Jamnagar, which houses a Rs 25,000-crore refinery, emerged as the country’s largest SEZ in the current financial year, with exports crossing Rs 62,000 crore till January.

“By March 2010, SEZ exports from Jamnagar refinery are expected to touch Rs 75,000 crore. This will contribute about 35-40 per cent of the country’s overall SEZ exports,” Development Commissioner (Jamnagar SEZ) Upendra Vasishth said. Reliance set up its refinery, over 700 hectares of the 1,700 hectares earmarked for the SEZ project.

In 2008-09, exports from SEZs in India were clocked at a modest Rs 99,689 crore. The multi-product Surat Special Economic Zone, or SURSEZ, was the largest exporter with Rs 15,000 crore worth of exports, followed by the Nokia SEZ in Tamil Nadu with Rs 10,000 crore exports, according to a Central government official.

“This year, Reliance’s Jamnagar SEZ has been the highest exporter, followed by Surat SEZ and Nokia SEZ,” the official added said.

Nokia SEZ ranks third
Surat SEZ’s exports crossed Rs 20,000 crore till January this year. Nokia ranked third with Rs 10,000 crore of exports till December 2009. According to official figures, Surat SEZ’s exports were worth Rs 14,500 crore till December 2009, while that of the Jamnagar SEZ were over Rs 50,000 crore in the same period.

“Till December 2009, all the operational SEZs in the country contributed about Rs 1,50,000 crore worth of exports. This is likely to cross Rs 2 lakh crore by the end of this fiscal,” Joint Secretary at the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Anil Mukim, said.

As on December 31, 2009, there were 105 operational SEZs in the country with a total investment of Rs 1.15 lakh crore. These created employment for 227,000 people in all.

‘Operated at 115%’
Reliance Industries Group President Parimal Nathwani said: “Our SEZ refinery operated close to 100 per cent capacity and at 115 per cent in the third quarter. Exports from the SEZ were primarily aimed at US and European markets, besides several other locations, including Asia and Africa.”

With a capacity of 29 million tonnes per annum, the Jamnagar Export Refinery Project (JERP), located in an SEZ, added nearly 20 per cent to the country’s refinery capacity. Value-added products like acrylates for US markets have formed a bulk of RIL’s exports from SEZ.

“RIL’s exports of refinery products accounted for 23.6 million tonnes during 2009-10 (till the end of the third quarter), against 16.2 million tonnes during the same period in previous year. This was solely due to incremental export volumes from the SEZ refinery. Naphtha, gasoline, aviation turbine fuel, etc are some of the products that fetch us good export earnings,” said Nathwani.

Meanwhile, the 10 functional SEZs in Gujarat have contributed exports worth Rs 84,173 crore in all till January 2010.