India's "Business Standard" newspaper reports that the proposed building products joint venture between Reliance Industries (RIL, Mumbai / India; www.ril.com) and Nova Chemicals (Calgary, Alberta / Canada; www.novachem.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 12.05.2008 – has been aborted. International Petrochemical Investment Company (IPIC, Abu Dhabi / UAE; www.ipic.ae), which acquired Nova Chemicals in July 2009 (see Plasteurope.com of 09.07.2009), has decided not to develop the jv, the paper says. The project was established to develop and manufacture energy efficient building products for the Indian sub-continent using Nova’s EPS-based systems.

It has been reported that the terms of the agreement for IPIC’s USD 2.3 bn acquisition of Nova specifically excluded further development of the jv. RIL had floated a subsidiary, Reliance Innovative Building Solutions, to establish the jv. Estimates put India's construction market at USD 60 bn growing at about 20% annually.