Industries and Commerce Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy on Wednesday said that Andhra Pradesh was looking to build self-sufficiency in petrochemical products and drive economies of scale in the downstream chemical industries.
For the development of the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR), Andhra Pradesh is enabling co-location of bulk, intermediate and speciality petrochemicals players. Besides, the State is talking to MNCs to facilitate joint ventures and technology transfer for introducing key intermediates.
Participating in ‘India Chem 2021’, an international conference jointly organised by the Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals and FICCI in New Delhi, Mr. Goutham Reddy said the Visakhapatnam-Chennai, Chennai - Bangalore and Hyderabad-Bangalore industrial corridors, which pass through Andhra Pradesh, dovetail with the largest PCPIR in the nation spread across 640 square km between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada.
He pointed out that A.P. had attracted marquee investments in recent times in the chemical and speciality chemical industries that did not depend on availability of basic feedstock such as chloralkali, caustic soda, paints and adhesives.
Seventy-plus mega industries and 5,000-and-odd MSMEs invested $2.40 billion in the State, the Minister informed.
“Chemicals and petrochemicals are of strategic importance not only for consumer products but also for critical and lifesaving items,” Mr. Goutham Reddy said, adding that the Indian chemical industry had numerous opportunities arising from the supply chain disruption in China and trade conflict among the U.S., Europe and China.
