GAIL to Expand Market Share in Petrochemicals, Plans to Set Up Two Polypropylene Units

GAIL India is looking forward towards expanding its market share in Petrochemicals and to diversify more into downstream businesses apart from the natural gas transmission vertical. GAIL which currently holds around 17% market share in the Petrochemicals market having a portfolio of liner low density Polyethylene and high-density Polyethylene is looking to capture more of the petrochemical industry in its desired plan which was revealed in the company’s annual report 2020. 

The state-owned gas transmission major will now be looking forward to diversifying its product portfolio to Polypropylene which is another Petrochemical apart from LLDPE and HDPE which is in high demand throughout India and globally. 

To achieve its goal of capturing larger market share of Petrochemicals, the company will be setting up two Polypropylene units of which one will be in Usar, Maharashtra and the other will be in Pata, Uttar Pradesh. The two plants when functional will be taking the production capacity to 1.6 million tonnes per annum in Petrochemicals. 

As per the annual report, GAIL will be investing around 88 billion rupees for the two plants. Apart from Petrochemicals, the company is also exploring opportunities in some specialty chemicals. 

Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer which is used in a wide variety of applications including packaging, automotive, building and construction, electrical and electronics, and medical. In 2020 the total Polypropylene demand in India stood at 5.2 million tonnes. And the demand is expected to grow at a health rate of 7%.