National Policy on Petrochemicals
Petroleum, Chemicals & Petrochemical Investment Regions Policy
Plastics Industry - Statistics
Plastics & Environment
 
   
 
  GLOBAL SCENARIO  
  Last few years have been tumultuous for plastics and petrochemical sector due to steep rise in oil prices, which has adversely affected the global economies. However, considering the feed stock advantage and abundance of oil reserves newer petrochemical complexes are being established in Middle-east countries. i.e. Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc. It is projected that by the end of 2010, Ethylene capacity in Middle-East would reach to about 35 million tons per annum and Polypropylene (PP) capacity to touch about 7 million tonnes per annum. The US Petrochemical sector may lose Export competitiveness as most of the Ethylene capacities in USA are Ethane based, which are not cost competitive and are capable to produce only Polyethylene (PE). Similarly, the revamping of European Petrochemical Complexes would be imperative as they are based on old and expensive technology and are not cost competitive with the Middle-East companies having the biggest advantage of raw material at their door-step. China, Middle-East and India would be the major global players, where expansion and augmentation of existing petrochemical capacity would take place in the next 5 years.
 
     
  Worldwide Plastics Industry witnessed a steady growth in the year 2007 which is reflected in the increased consumption figures of all types of Plastics materials.  
     
  Asia has been world’s largest plastics consumer for several years, accounting for about 30% of the global consumption excluding Japan, which has share of about 6.5%. Next to Asia is North America with 26% share, then Western Europe with 23% share in the global market.  
     
  The key growth segment remains “Packaging” which accounted for over 35% of the global consumption. Amongst the individual Plastics Materials, Polyolefin accounted for 53% of the total consumption, (PE with 33.5%, PP with 19.5%) followed by PVC – 16.5%, PS-8.5%, PET & PU - 5.5%, Styrene copolymers (ABS, SAN, etc) – 3.5% other engineering & high performance & speciality plastics, blends, alloys, thermosetting plastics – 13%.  
     
  In recent years, significant aspect of plastics material growth globally has been the innovation of newer application areas for plastics such as increasing plastics applications in automotive field, rail, transport, defence & aerospace, medical and healthcare, electrical & electronics, telecommunication, building & infrastructure, furniture, etc.  
     
  Plastics have become the key drivers of innovations & application development. Polymer-Electronics is one such area which has opened up new avenues for plastics; from organic light emitting diodes to electro-optical and bio-electrical complements, from low-cost plastic chips to flexible solar cells. New plastics can conduct electricity and emit light. While polymers will not replace silicon as semiconductors, they do offer completely new opportunities for low-priced mass-manufactured products. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags in smartcards for identification and access control, payment and ticket systems, price labels, product tracking systems in the logistics chain or packaging that monitors product quality – many things are in offing. Growth-trend of plastics has proved that there has been a quiet “Plastics – revolution” taking place in the material – sector.  
     
  Global Per capita consumption of Plastics is ( in Kgs)  
     
 
World Average 26
 
 
North America 90
 
 
West Europe 65
 
 
East Europe 10
 
 
China 12
 
 
India 5.0
 
 
South East Asia 10
 
 
L. America 18
 
     
  World-wide, the plastics and polymer consumption will have an average growth rate of 5% and it will touch a figure of 227 million tons by 2015. Globally, it is projected that PET (Bottle grade) will have the highest growth rate of about 11% AAGR.  
     
   
     
  (Annual Average Growth Rate) amongst all polymers, followed by PP, PE, PVC and PS in the descending order, as depicted in the Figure.  
     
  Furthermore, the grades of PE(HDPE, LLDPE, LDPE) are expected to grow about GDP growth annually up to 2020. The forecast about global polyethylene demand is as follows:  
     
  Global polyethylene demand is estimated to grow an average 4.4% annually through 2020. This is    about 1% above the expected global GDP growth.  
     
  LLDPE is expected to experience the fastest growth, with an average annual growth rate of 6.2    percent. This comes at the expense of LDPE, which is expected to grow only 1.8% during the same    period.  
     
  HDPE growth is estimated to average 4.6 percent.  
     
  The Global PE Demand in terms of1000 tons per year upto 2020 is projected in Figure :  
     
   
     
  Similarly, Polyethylene (PE) dominates the future capacity addition amongst different polymers by 2008, which is evident from the Global Commodity Polymer Capacity Additions between 2004 – 2008.  
     
   
     
  INDIAN PLASTICS INDUSTRIES – PERSPECTIVE  
  Over the years, India has made significant progress in the industrial world with healthy economic growth. On purchase power parity basis, it is one of the top five global economics and is expected to be the third largest by the turn of this decade. Plastics, one of the fastest growing industries in India, have a vital role to play. Indian Plastics Industry is expanding at a phenomenal pace. Major international companies from various sectors such as automobiles, electronics, telecommunications, food processing, packing, healthcare etc. have set-up large manufacturing bases in India. Therefore, demand for plastics is rapidly increasing and soon India will emerge as one of the fastest growing markets in the world.  
     
  The next two decades are expected to offer unprecedented opportunities for the plastic industry in India. This would necessitate industry initiatives to foster investments, grow the market, upgrade quality standards, enhance global participation, encourage Indian industry, to adopt and adapt to world class technology and manufacturing practices  
     
  Despite instability in International prices of polymer materials in 2006 - 07, plastics industry in the country has consolidated its performance by consuming about 5.0 million tonnes of polymers, as compared to Chinese consumption of about 30 million tonnes in 2007. Indian plastics industries are enthusiastic about the acceleration of the growth engine in the next 3 to 5 years due to capacity expansion of existing petrochemical complexes and setting up of new crackers in the country currently. Reliance Industries Ltd., (RIL) has about 75% share of Indian Petrochemical Cracker capacity, followed by medium sized capacity of Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL) and Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd., (HPL). RIL has ambitious plan of augmenting its PP capacity from 1010 KT to 2600 KT by the year 2010. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has also planned an 800 K tonnes naphtha cracker at Panipat at an investment of Rs.6300 crores to produce 800 KT of PE and PP each at Panipat. IOC would also be setting up a production capacity 150 KT PP at Chennai by year 2009 as well as styrene, which is not being produced in India. These positive factors of availability of polymeric materials would infallibly be harbinger in accelerating the growth of plastics sector in the near future. The capacities of current petrochemicals producers are given in Table – 1  
     
  TABLE 1- Current Indian Petrochemicals Capacities (in KT)  
 
 
 
RIL, Hazira 350 - - 400 - - 300
 
 
RIL, Jamnagar 600 - - - 800 - -
 
 
RIL Patalganga 60 - - - 300 - -
 
 
IPCL, Nagothane 60 - 80 220 - - -
 
 
IPCL, Vadodara 75 - 80 - - - 55
 
 
IPCL, Gandhar - 160 - - - - -
 
 
GAIL, Auriya - 100 - 160 - - 150
 
 
HPL, Haldia 210 200 - 260 - - -
 
 
BRPL, Bongaigaon - - - - - - -
 
 
Finolex, Pisranpar - - - - - - 130
 
 
LG Poly, Vizag - - - - - 80 -
 
 
Supreme, Mumbai - - - - - 240 -
 
 
Chem Plast, Metturdam - - - - - - 60
 
 
DCW, Sahupuram - - - - - - 60
 
 
DCM, Shriram, Kota - - - - 400 - 35
 
 
RPRL, Abu - - - - - 16 -
 
 
BASF Styrenics, Bharuch - - - - - 60 -
 
 
Mitsubishi, Haldia - - - - - - -
 
 
 
 
5665
 
     
     
     
  Typical Polymer consumption pattern of different polymers  
 
 
 
LDPE/EVA 275
 
 
LLDPE 550 1745
 
 
HDPE 920
 
 
PP 1300
 
 
PVC 1000
 
 
PS 225
 
 
PET Film 135
 
 
Bottle 100 235
 
 
SAN/ABS 90
 
 
Polyamide 35
 
 
Polycarbonate
 
 
Polyacetal 8 125
 
 
PET/PBT 7
 
 
Others 3
 
 
Thermoset 100
 
 
 
     
  To manufacture finished products, polymers are processed through various types of techniques namely extrusion, injection moulding, blow moulding and rotomoulding. Various products manufactured through these processes are highlighted in the following exhibit.  
     
     
  Classification of Plastic Products by Type of process used  
 
  Extrusion Films and Sheets, Fibre and Filaments Pipes, Conduits and profiles, Miscellaneous applications
 
 
Plastic Products Injection Moulding Industrial Injection Moulding, Household Injection Moulding and Thermo-ware/ Moulded luggage
 
 
  Blow Moulding Bottles, containers, Toys and Housewares
 
 
  Roto moulding Large circular tanks such as water tanks
 
     
  The polymer consumption in India according to various processes is provided as follows :  
     
     
 
 
 
Extrusion 60.0
 
 
Injection Moulding 25.0
 
 
Blow Moulding / Stretch Moulding 06.0
 
 
Rotomoulding 01.0
 
 
Other Processes 08.00
 
     
  The Indian plastic processing industry is highly fragmented and comprises 25,000 firms. Barring 10% - 15% of the firms, which can be classified as medium scale operations, all the units operate on a small-scale basis.  
     
  The top 100 players account for just 20% of the industry turnover. The total number of players in the sector is more than 25,000. However, the degree of fragmentation, worldwide, is a large and despite the small size of operations of the players, they are able to operate profitably. Further, the high growth in demand ensures that the market is able to absorb the excess capacity in quick time. Overall, the degree of competition can be considered high in the Indian plastic processing industry.  
     
  The sector has a significant presence of the unorganised sector, which accounts for more than 70% of the industry turnover. More than 95% of the firms in the industry are partnership, proprietorship or private limited companies. Further, these small companies get significant advantages in taxes. These firms thus provide significant level of competition to the organised sector companies, which combined together are making losses. The organised sector companies thus need to build up significant brand image to survive against the competition from the unorganised sector. The key organised sector players include Nilkamal Plastics Limited and Supreme Industries Limited.  
     
     
  Statistics of Plastics Industries in India :  
  Current Status  
 
Major Raw Material Producers 15 Nos.
 
 
Processing Units 25,000 Nos.
 
 
Turnover (Processing Industry) Rs.85,000 Crores
 
 
Capital Asset (Polymer Industry) Rs.55,000 Crores
 
 
Raw Material Produced approx 5.3 MMT
 
 
Raw Material Consumed approx 5.1 MMT
 
 
Employed Direct/Indirect 3.3 Million
 
 
Export Value approx US $ 1.90 Billion
 
 
Revenue to Government approx. Rs.7300 Crores
 
     
     
  By 2011 - 12  
 
Demand Potential 12.5 MMT
 
 
Additional Employment 4.0 Million
 
 
Investment Potential Rs.84,000 Crores
 
     
     
  VISION 2015 – Indian Plastics Industry :  
 
Consumption of Polymers @ 15% CARG 18.9 Million tonnes
 
 
Turnover of plastics Industries Rs.1,33,245 crores
 
 
Additional Employment Generation 7 Million
 
 
Requirement of Additional
Plastics Processing Machines
68113 Nos
 
 
Additional Capital Investment
In Machines (2004-2015)
Rs.45,000 crores
 
     
     
 

For more information on Indian Plastics Industry, please visit              

 
     
  Plastindia Foundation - www.plastindia.org  
     
  All India Plastics Manufacturers Association - www.aipma.net  
     
  Indian Plastic Federation - www.plasticfederation.org  
     
  Organization of Plastics Processors of India - www.oppindia.org  
     
  The Plastics Export Promotion Council - www.plexconcil.org