Double output in next 5 years: Chemical Minister

The Dollar Business Bureau

Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar asked the chemicals and petrochemicals industry to target an annual growth rate of 14.7 percent so as to double its production in the next 5 years and said the government will support the industry’s growth story.

While speaking at the “CHEMINAR-2016” in New Delhi on Friday, Kumar said, “India’s chemicals and petrochemicals industry is growing at the rate of 11–12 percent and has a production of worth $200 billion per year. I called upon the industry to go for a growth rate of 14.7 percent per year so as to increase its output to twofold in the next 5 years. The Government will facilitate in the growth story,” he added.

On the issue of cost and availability of feedstock for sector, Kumar said that the government can support these industries in long-term pricing contracts for natural gas with other nations.

“There are 22 refineries in India and there is a plan to establish chemical hubs around them. This will help in savings as the approach of clusters can reduce the costs,” the Minister said.

“However, the projects are not required to be just confined to the Greenfield projects but can also cover the Brownfield ones, that is, the projects already functional at various places,” he added.

On providing support, he said that the government can support in providing general facilities such as infrastructure, trading and testing facilities, effluent plants, etc, which can help in reducing the cost by upto 25–30 percent.

The Minister said that the government is looking for coal gasification route for uninterrupted supply for Talcher Fertiliser unit and is also setting up gas pipelines in order to make available supply of gas in the eastern region of India.

On reverse Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Kumar said that the government is in discussions with Iran and Mozambique, and other regions can also be explored.