LONDON—Sibur and Reliance Industries Ltd. have started up their joint venture butyl rubber plant in Jamnagar, India, Sibur CEO Dmitry Konov confirmed at a Feb. 20 press conference in London.
The Indian company holding a majority stake (about 75 percent) in the venture.
The new facility, with an annual capacity of 120,000 metric tons, is located at RIL's petrochemicals site in Jamnagar, "and is based on our own proprietary IIR technology, which we are licensing to the joint venture," Konov said.
Going forward, the plan is to add 60,000 tons of halobutyl rubber production capacity at the Jamnagar site, Konov said. The halogenation facility still is in the construction phase.
"Halobutyl rubber will come on-stream by the end of this year or the first quarter of next year, depending on how fast we ramp up," Konov said.
Meanwhile, the JV partners are bringing product from India's first butyl rubber plant to market—RIL in India and Sibur outside of India.
"Feedback from clients has been consistently positive as the quality of the product fully meets their expectations and needs," Konov said.
More details about this project and related developments within Sibur's synthetic rubber business will be in the March/April issue of European Rubber Journal magazine.