IOC board approves Capex of Rs 4,495 crore for setting first-ever Styrene Project in India

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) announced on Thursday that its board accorded stage-1 approval for setting up of India’s first-ever Styrene Monomer Project at the firm’s Panipat Refinery & Petrochemical Complex in Haryana with a total capacity of Rs 3.87 lakh tonnes per annum.   

The project will be commissioned by 2026-27 and envisages utilising Ethylene potential from INDMAX Unit and Benzene that is already being produced at Panipat Complex.   

Presently, India’s Styrene consumption is around 900 thousand metric tonnes per annum (TMTPA) while its demand is expected to increase consistently over the next 15-20 years. However, there is no domestic Styrene capacity in India and hence, the entire demand is met through imports from Singapore, West Asia and South-East Asia, causing significant inconvenience to the domestic Styrene downstream industry.  

The proposed Styrene Project will reduce the nation’s import dependence substantially and result in considerable Forex savings of about Rs 3,650 crore per annum, the company stated in its filing to BSE.  

Styrene is used to produce polystyrene, paints & coatings or acrylic, unsaturated polyester resins, and elastomers such as Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene and Styrene-Butadiene Rubber.  

At 12.43 pm on Thursday, the stock of IOC was trading at Rs 107.85, down by 0.09 per cent or 0.15 per share as against a 0.13 per cent decline in the benchmark index. The 52-week high and 52-week low of the scrip was recorded at Rs 117.85 and Rs 71.35, respectively on BSE.