Petrochemicals sector seeks cut in excise duty on Naphtha to 8%, increase customs duty on polymers, chemicals & fibre intermediates to 10% and to remove customs duty on naphtha & propane.
India and the US have decided to hold sector-specific talks in the coming weeks to finalise the structure of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), the government said on Saturday. The engagement between the two countries came in the backdrop of the USA's threat to impose reciprocal tariffs on its key trading partners, including India, on April 2.
Reliance Industries' (RIL's) oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business is likely to remain under pressure for the remaining of the current financial year, according to analysts and company executives. "Management guides for softness for the next couple of quarters in both retail and O2C businesses," analysts at BOB Capital Markets noted in an after-results report on RIL. For the July-September quarter (Q2) of 2024-25 (FY25), RIL's O2C business reported a 5.1 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue to Rs 1.55 trillion.
"We plan to set up a number of petrochemical plants in the next decade, with each costing $4-6 billion," the Dubai-based Gulf News quoted Ambani as saying.
Indian Oil Corporation wants to set up a petrochemical plant in Yemen provided it is allocated a gasfield, a senior company official said on Friday.
Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has surprised the street with a better than expected performance in its oil-to-chemicals (O2C) division in October-December 2024 (Q3FY25). RIL executives attributed it to favourable feedstock sourcing and higher volumes. However, they also listed cost optimisation and other measures.
The Assam government has banned the serving and consumption of beef in restaurants, hotels, and public places. The decision was made at a meeting of the state cabinet to amend the existing law on beef consumption. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the current law is strong but there has been no prohibition on beef consumption at restaurants, hotels, and religious or social gatherings. The new law aims to put a complete ban on consumption of beef in public places in Assam.
'The government has put in a lot of effort to provide infrastructure for the industry.'
US President Barack Obama has slapped new tough sanctions against Iran targetting its energy and petrochemical sectors, which he said are part of efforts to isolate the Iranian government for its failure to meet its international obligations over its nuclear programme.
'The government has put in a lot of effort to provide infrastructure for the industry.'
IndianOil targets monthly 5,000-tonne polypropylene exports
ONGC is considering selling up to 25 per cent of the equity shares in ONGC Petro-additions Ltd (OPaL), the special purpose vehicle formed for setting up the petrochemical complex at Dahej SEZ, a senior company official said. It plans to give 19 per cent equity stake in OPaL to state-run gas utility GAIL India, while another 25 per cent interest may be offered to Petronet LNG and Bharat Petroleum or a strategic partner.
Reliance Industries, India's most alued company, and state-run GAIL India will next week mount pitch with Qatar for jointly setting up a $.3 billion mega petrochemical plant in the gas rich nation.
"We had identified 10 countries for setting up the mega petrochemical plant. A working group (of GAIL and RIL) will shortlist three of the identified countries. We may then narrow on one or two for setting up of the mega petrochemical plant," GAIL Chairman and Managing Director U D Choubey told reporters. He, however, refused to name the 10 countries identified for the purpose.
At current prices, the downstream petrochemical industry production is expected to increase from $15-$18 billion currently to $30-35 billion over the next 5-7 years.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd has spent $13 billion on acquisitions in the past five years across new energy, telecom, retail and media business to script a pivot away from core oil and petrochemicals business to clean energy and consumer facing verticals. Last week, Reliance bought oncology platform Karkinos Healthcare for Rs 375 crore, adding another stack to its diagnostic and digital healthcare ecosystem, Morgan Stanley said in a report.
Zomato emerged as the biggest gainer, followed by Reliance, Nestle, Asian Paints and Power Grid.
The company is already in talks with Indian oil refiners to buy paraxylene which is developed from naphtha, a refining byproduct. The company plans to use paraxylene as a raw material to make purified terephthalic acid (PTA), a petrochemical product used in polyester and plastic.
India's biggest oil and gas bid round attracted four bidders that included state-owned ONGC and OIL and private sector Vedanta Ltd, with most blocks getting just two bids, according to Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH). The OALP-IX bid round, where 28 blocks or areas spread over 1.36 lakh square kilometre were offered for finding and producing oil and gas, for the first time saw Reliance Industries Ltd-bp plc combine bidding together with ONGC for one block in Gujarat offshore.
From the 30 Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Maruti were the biggest laggards. Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company, on Monday reported a 5 per cent fall in the July-September quarter net profit as weak oil refining and petrochemical business hurt operational performance. ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement and HCL Technologies were among the gainers.
Reliance Industries has announced the setting up a 2 million tonne per annum petrochemical complex at its special economic zone at Jamnagar with an investment of Rs 13,500 crore (Rs 13.5 billion).
Reliance Industries Ltd on Monday reported a 5 per cent fall in the net profit for the July-September quarter, as weak oil refining and petrochemical business hurt operational performance.
While most analysts are expecting poor results from oil marketing companies (OMCs) in the first quarter of 2024-25 (Q1FY25) and even in the first half (H1) of FY25, GAIL (India) could be an outlier. Upstream producers, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) could do well due to strong crude and gas prices, but refiners are likely to see weak margins and the impact of frozen prices during the election period will also be negative.
Weighed down by the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business, Reliance Industries (RIL) results for the April-June quarter (Q1) of 2024-25 (FY25) missed Street estimates. A 14 per cent fall in the O2C segment's operating profit compared to the year-ago quarter and a 22 per cent sequential decline pulled down the consolidated performance. The O2C segment accounts for a third of the overall operating profit and about 60 per cent of the attributable consolidated profit.
The Adani group, buoyed by a sharp recovery in its share prices over the past year, is set to embark on a series of roadshows this week to raise up to $4 billion (approximately Rs 33,254 crore) through equity and refinancing of older debt, according to banking sources. The roadshows, scheduled to take place in major cities, will inform investors about the group's investment plans across renewable energy, petrochemicals, and infrastructure development.
The Centre is actively involved in pushing through the PPCIR projects which would be spread over an area of 200-300 sq km each, Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar said. "Once the policy is notified, it will lead to mega-investments through the PPP (public-private-partnership) mode in the coastal states," he added, adding that inter-ministerial consultations were on at present and rules are to be framed.
According to a source, banks have decided to infuse funds after Purnendu Chatterjee, chairman of The Chatterjee Group, agreed to invest Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) as margin amount into the ailing plant.
According to the job portal TimesJobs.com's job index Recruittex, the top hiring industries are healthcare, petrochemicals/oil and gas, consumer durables/FMCG and automobiles/auto ancillaries.
Thermax reported 13 per cent Y-o-Y revenue growth with operating profit margin decline in Q1FY25. It took a hit of Rs 70 crore on specific projects. The company enjoys a strong order pipeline across sectors like power, steel, refining and petrochemicals.
BPCL is a high revenue-earning public-sector undertaking (PSU) and plans to privatise it are completely off the table, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday after assuming charge of the ministry for the second time. "Why would we divest ourselves of highly successful Maharatnas like BPCL," Puri said, arguing the Centre was not in favour of divesting its stake in oil PSUs.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Tuesday reported halving of its March quarter net profit largely because of losses in the petrochemical business and shrinking margin after it announced a pre-election fuel price cut despite rising input costs. The net profit of Rs 4,837.69 crore in January-March compared to Rs 10,058.69 crore a year back and Rs 8,063.39 crore in the preceding October-December quarter, according to a stock exchange filing by the company.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Monday reported an almost flat March quarter net profit, amid a recovery in its core oil and petrochemicals business and sustained momentum across the consumer-facing telecom and retail businesses. RIL's net profit stood at Rs 18,951 crore, or Rs 28.01 per share, in the January-March quarter of the 2023-24 fiscal as compared to Rs 19,299 crore, or Rs 28.52 a share, a year ago, according to a company's stock exchange filing.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Thursday unveiled the next phase of growth at Reliance Industries Ltd, with retail and telecom worth over $100 billion each, doubling revenues and pre-tax profit in 3-4 years, new energy business becoming profitable by 2031, and core oil and chemical business continuing to be the robust growth engine. The sprawling conglomerate with interests in refining, oil and gas, petrochemicals, telecom, retail, and media is on track to more than double in size before the end of the decade, Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance, told company shareholders.
India's export of fuels like diesel to the European Union jumped 58 per cent in the first three quarters of 2024, with a bulk of them likely coming from refining discounted Russian oil, according to a monthly tracker report. The EU/G7 countries in December 2022 introduced a price cap and an embargo on the imports of Russian crude oil in a bid to cripple Kremlin's revenue and create a vacuum in its funding for the invasion of Ukraine.
Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is planning to spend $3 billion for a new petrochemical complex at Jamnagar.The new complex will utilise residual gases generated from the two existing refineries, of which one is located in a special economic zone (SEZ), to generate further downstream products."The investment could be in the range of $3 billion, depending on raw material prices," said a Reliance official on condition of anonymity.
