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(Plastemart) -- Indorama has
called on the Nigerian federal government to hinge its industrialisation drive
on the petrochemical industry. Speaking at the recent Rivers Investors’ Forum in
Port Harcourt, the MD/CEO of Indorama EPCL, new owners of Eleme Petrochemicals
Ltd. -Manish Mundra, called for the immediate setting up of what he called the
Nigerian Petrochemicals Industry Authority (NPCIA) to drive the development of
the sector and regulate the industry, now that many new entrants are itching to
get into the sector.
Mundra observed that the recent wave of investments coming into the
petrochemicals industry, including the proposed $6billion project said to be the
largest in Africa, by both the NNPC and a Saudi Arabian conglomerate, Xenel,
planned for 2015, has made it imperative for government to do the needed.
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Furthermore, there are two proposed fertilizer plants by the federal
government, through the NNPC to which US$4 billion is being invested, with
Indian partners (Nararjuna) each with 1.3 mln tpa and five discrete blending
plants to be located across the country. Mundra explained that, there was an
urgent need for government to move fast in pushing its growth through the
petrochemicals sub-sector of the hydrocarbon industry, as he said Nigeria had no
reason to linger behind countries such as Singapore that had no raw
petrochemical stock.
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Currently, Indorama EPCL is building a US$2 bln fertilizer plant and
ethanol plants at its present location, as part of an expansion project to
exploit the industry further, in view of its conviction that the petrochemical
industry in Nigeria was large enough to accommodate many more ventures to meet
the rising global demand. The government has been urged to institute a framework
to regulate the sector and drive the processes with an authority to act as a
one-stop shop for all clearances.
Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and
other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers
Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the
Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea
of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters.
When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to
invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the
converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported
finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the
Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or
make appointments to any Summit partcipant.
mrcplast.com
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