Shares of India Glycols Ltd surged as much as 10.9% on Tuesday to hit an intraday high of ₹780.70 apiece on the BSE, a day after the company received an order worth ₹1,164 crore to supply 16.55 crore litres of ethanol under ethanol blended programme (EBPP) during ethanol supply year from November 1, 2023, till October 31, 2024. Of this, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), which are oil marketing companies, collectively placed an order for the supply of 12.98-litre crore worth ₹896 crore. The oil companies i.e. Reliance Industries Ltd. and Nayara Energy collectively placed an order for 3.75-litre crore of ethanol worth ₹268 crore.
"We wish to inform you that the Company has been allocated quantities through tender(s) participation for the supply of 16.55 crore litres of ethanol with an estimated value aggregating to ₹1,164 crores under Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme (“EBPP”) during Ethanol Supply Year from 1st November 2023 till 31st October, 2024," says the company.
The ethanol will be supplied from the company’s grain-based plants in Gorakhpur and Kashipur.
Established in 1983, the company manufactures glycols, ethoxylates and PEGs, performance chemicals, glycol ethers and acetates, natural gums and potable alcohol. At 1:17 pm, the share price of the company was trading 9.25% higher at ₹768.50. This is in line with the broader BSE Sensex, which was trading 172.50 points or 0.24% higher at 71,485.03. In the last one month and six months, the counter has given 9.73% and 24.30%, in returns, respectively.
Notably, the government has set a target of achieving 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2025, instead of its earlier deadline of 2030. Fortune India had earlier reported the country has already achieved more than 12% ethanol blending. According to the government, India, which consumes about 50-60 million metric tonnes of petrol every year, has already increased the ethanol blending in petrol from 1.53% in 2013-14 to 10.17% in July 2022.
Moreover, the country’s oil marketing companies like BPCL, Indian Oil and HPCL are setting up 12 second-generation (2G) bio-refineries, with an investment of ₹14,000 crore to make ethanol using lignocellulosic biomass (any agro waste) and other renewable feedstock.
Earlier this week, the government also reversed its order banning ethanol production from sugarcane juice. The government imposed the ban to put a check on the rising sugar prices. Ethanol is a by-product of sugarcane and molasses made from sugarcane. The government earlier capped 1.2 million tonnes of sugarcane for the production of ethanol. However, the limit has now been increased to 1.7 million tonnes.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari had earlier said ethanol production is going to push agriculture contribution in the country’s GDP from 20% to 12%.
