Times of India MRPL dispatches first consignment of polypropylene pearls to B’luru firm MANGALURU:
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) on Thursday dispatched its first consignment of ‘Mangpol’ polypropylene pearls manufactured at its unit here. The annual demand for polypropylene across India currently is around 30.7 lakh tonnes of which 14% is imported. Polypropylene, a thermoplastic polymer is used in production of wide variety of applications including packaging and labeling, textiles, stationery, and so on.
BJP leader Prahlad Joshi, who is the chairman of parliamentary standing committee on petroleum and natural gas, flagged off the first consignment to Bengaluru-based Petrotech Products. He said MRPL has a production capacity of 4.40 lakh tonnes per annum of this polymer, demand for which in South India is 5 lakh metric tonnes per annum. “MRPL is the only refinery in South India producing this product and will be able to meet this demand in its entirety,” Joshi said.
H Kumar, managing director, MRPL, said the commercial production of this product will enable the refiner to net a topline revenue growth of Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000 crore at the current price for it in the global market. At the bottom line, it will also enable MRPL to improve its refining margin by $1-1.5/barrel and this will add to the company’s profitability “We are reaping benefits of bottom upgradation of our refinery that enables MRPL to derive this product,” he said. Noting that the automobile industry is one of the biggest user of polypropylene, M Venkatesh, director (refinery), MRPL said the plastic manufactured using it enables the industry to produce lighter vehicles, which in turn results in enhanced mileage and greater savings for the Indian economy as a whole. IOC’s refinery at Panipat is the other major producer of polypropylene in the country, and there are no other major players in to its production down South, he noted.
The standing committee has asked the Union ministry for petroleum and natural gas to start filling up the three strategic oil reserve caverns in the country to make use of the current weakened global crude oil prices, Joshi said.
