Interview Insights:
Rail Analysis: As we all know, Reliance is a prominent multi-industry conglomeration engaged in petrochemicals, textiles, retail, telecommunication, etc., how Reliance ventured into the composites industry?
Shri Ashok Dube: True, let me share the glorious history of Reliance in brief. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), founded in 1966 by Padma Vibhushan Shri Dhirubhai Ambani, is an Indian multibillion corporation having diversified presence in various businesses globally like, energy, textiles, oil & gas, petrochemicals, telecommunication, renewable energy, retail, media & entertainment.
The strategy & vision to enter Into new & advanced material was always there owing to rapid pace of urbanization and Infrastructure development. Accordingly, in ‘Sept-2017’ Reliance ventured into composites market with acquisition of globally renowned composites manufacturing unit located at Vadodara.
This paved the way for Reliance to cater the emerging needs of various industrial segments like, Power & Renewable Energy, 011 & Gas, Chemicals, Electrical & Electronics, Telecommunication, Civil Aviation, Marine, Mass Transportation, Automobile, Roads & Infrastructure, Construction & Disaster Management Industrial & Municipal piping.
Rail Analysis: What are the various products which Reliance Industries is offering under its composites business portfolio?
Shri Ashok Dube: Reliance Composites Solutions (RCS) offers turnkey solutions from design to commissioning in Infrastructure, Mobility, Power & Energy, Aerospace & Defense, etc. The capabilities are in place for undertaking material engineering, product designing and prototyping to manufacture, supply and commissioning with requisite global certification and approvals. The strong value chain consist of In-house manufacturing of major raw materials like Resin, catalyst, additives to Glass Fabric and Carbon Fibre. The downstream products portfolio consist of Metro coaches (Interiors & Exteriors), Wind Turbine Blades, Underground Fuel Storage Tanks, Carbon Wrap for strengthening of infrastructure, industrial products.
Rail Analysis: Throw some light on Reliance offerings for the Mass Transportation system?
Shri Ashok Dube: Rapid urbanization requires transportation solutions that addresses unique social, economic, and environmental issues associated with large population. ReIX composites helps in providing these transportation solutions. The dedicated RCS facility In Vadodara, Is equipped to manufacture products for the Rail, Metro and Automotive Industry with IRIS certification and global standards like EN 45545-HL3. The in-house capability includes all possible processes manufacturing under one roof.
RCS provides a large portfolio of advanced composite products for ready as well as customized mobility solutions that are ideal replacements for conventional materials and systems. We follow an integrated approach from concept to commissioning and our design studio can deliver solutions based on reliability, safety, efficiency & maintainability.
At our state of art Infrastructure manufacturing facility at Vadodara, we offer Complete Interior, Exterior with ergonomic designs and world class aesthetics. We have delivered coaches/other modules in conjunction with domestic Metro OEMs to support Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ Initiative. In collaboration with Metro OEMs like BEML (Bangalore), Alstom (Vadodara), Titagarh (Kolkata), DMRC (Delhi) we are supplying metro coaches interior for Mumbai Metro, Agra-Kanpur Metro and Pune Metro resp.
Rail Analysis: Reliance future plans to be a global leader in the composites business?
Shri Ashok Dube: Reliance has ambitious plans based on strong business vision to Innovate and develop new materials & products for emerging applications. A world class application development center is being created for in depth R&D & innovations for advanced materials, processes and applications.
We are encouraged by the announcement, in the recently held 45th AGM, by our Hon’ble Chairman Shri Mukesh Ambani as, “RIL will build in phases India’s first and one of the worlds largest Carbon Fiber plants at Hazira with a capacity of 20,000 MTPA based on Acrylonitrile feedstock. We will commence Acrylonitrile production next year and aim to complete the first phase of the carbon Fiber plant in 2025. We will further integrate our composites business with Carbon Fiber to produce Carbon Fiber composites. Besides other applications, Carbon Fiber composites are also used to meet the rapidly growing light-weight requirements of Mobility and Renewable Energy.”
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