Asia's richest tycoon is making America great again

Asia's richest tycoon is preparing to welcome US cargo originally meant for China but rerouted to India.

- By Andy Mukherjee

The ship Mukesh Ambani is waiting for is laden with ethane.

This colorless, odorless component of natural gas is shipped in liquefied form in special carriers such as STL Qianjiang, which is currently on its way from the US Gulf Coast to billionaire Ambani’s terminal in Dahej, Gujarat, on India’s western seaboard. There, his flagship Reliance Industries Ltd. has an ethane cracker to produce ethylene, a key building block of plastic products.

The unit, completed in 2017, made Reliance “the first company to globally conceptualize large-scale imports of ethane from North America as feedstock,” it boasted in a press release back then. Eight years later, that foresight may come in handy to trade negotiators in New Delhi. “Stop obsessing over your $43 billion trade deficit with us,” they might like to tell their counterparts in Washington, as both sides try to close a deal ahead of the July 9 US deadline for 26% reciprocal tariffs. “We're going to buy your gas.”

The 68-year-old petrochemicals czar bet on North American ethane more than a decade ago. His father Dhirubhai Ambani, the founder of the empire, was the original “Polyester Prince.” And although the son has ventured into new areas and added $57 billion in retail and digital services, the annual revenue from the legacy oils-to-chemicals business is still bigger at $74 billion.