Indian polymer demand to double by 2012

16 April 2007 10:02  [Source: ICIS news]

SHANGHAI (ICIS news)--Polymer demand in India was expected to almost double to 12.6m tonnes/year in 2011-12, up from an estimated 6.5m tonnes in 2007-08, an industry official said on Monday.

 

“Much of this demand growth will be manifested in the polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) segments,” said Shivaprasad S Naik, Reliance Industries' (RIL) country head in China at the third ICIS Asian Polymers conference in Shanghai.

 

The growth in polymer demand would present tremendous opportunities for the downstream processing sector, Naik added. “Processing capacity would need to be enhanced by about 8m tonnes/year by 2012, and 150,000 additional machines would be required, all of which would call for an additional investment of $1bn,” he said.

 

The boom in the Indian retail market has boosted demand for polymer packaging, he said. “This segment has seen an increase of 22% in turnover from $1.8bn in 2001-02 to $4.9bn in 2006-07,” he said.

 

Packaging would account for 50% of the country's plastics consumption in the coming years, Naik said.

 

Consumption of polymers in the plastic furniture segment was expected to double to 330,000 tonnes in 2007-08 from four years ago, Naik said.

 

“This is partly driven by the Indian government's move to stall the cutting down of trees and partly by export demand,” he added.

 

The growth in the infrastructure sector was also fuelling polymer demand in India, Naik said. “Investments in rural water supply alone will exceed $2.2bn/year, translating into 200,000 tonnes/year of PE pipes,” he said. Housing, roads and railways would also contribute to a boom in demand for polymers, he added.

 

“An additional demand driver, especially for PP, is the automobile sector, which has taken off in India with several multinationals setting up factories in India,” Naik said.

 

The conference started on Monday and ends on Tuesday.

By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

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