KOCHI: Kerala is a huge market for paint companies such as Asian Paints and Nerolac, contributing to about 10 per cent of their sales, but none of these companies have manufacturing plants in the state. Likewise, products such as automotive seats, mattresses, shoe soles, etc. have a big market in Kerala, yet these are mostly produced in plants in the western and northern parts of the country.
This may change soon with public sector oil refinery BPCL’s Kochi unit’s diversification to petrochemical segment to produce acrylic acid, acrylates, and oxo-alcohol, which find use in the manufacture of paints, water treatment, superabsorbent polymer, detergent adhesives, sealants, solvents, plasticisers, etc., expected to go into production later this year.
Prasad K Panicker, executive director of BPCL’s Kochi Refinery, said BPCL was implementing two big projects right now - petrochemicals project at `5,500 crore and Petchem complex to produce polyols at a cost of `11,130 crore. Panicker said he expects several companies to set up manufacturing units near Kochi to make use of the products from BPCL.
The Kinfra Petrochemical Park, which is coming up at 481 acres of FACT land at Ambalamugal, may be the ideal venue for these companies, he reckoned. “Production of these products is expected to catalyse growth in a large number of downstream industries, the growth of which was constrained due to non-availability of feedstock,” he said.
BPCL recently implemented the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project at its Kochi refinery to produced 500,000 metric tonnes per annum of propylene, the main feedstock of petrochemicals. The PSU is strategically entering the petrochemicals sector to reduce the dependence of the country on imports of petrochemicals used to produce a wide range of articles such as paints, printing inks, automotive parts, diapers, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, etc.
The technology for the project to produce acrylic acid, acrylates, and oxo-alcohol, is sourced from international licensors such as Germany’s Air Liquide Global E & C Solutions, Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and UK’s Johnson Matthey Davy Process Technologies.
Forex savings and jobs creation
Products from the BPCL’s new projects are expected to result in foreign exchange savings of approximately I13,000 crore per annum for the country. It will also provide employment opportunity to nearly 12,000 persons during the construction phase and about 700 persons as direct and indirect labour during the operational phase, apart from employment potential in the downstream industries.