Editorial February-2019 Chemical Industry Fun Facts

Rajiv Parikh

10 Feb 2019

1. India is the third largest consumer of polymers in the world.
2. Fourth Largest producer of agrochemicals in the world.
3. Sixth largest producer of chemicals in the world.
4. The Indian chemical industry is projected to reach $304 bn by 2025
5. Indian chemicals industry excluding pharmaceuticals products ranks 14th in exports globally.
6. Demand for chemical products is expected to grow at approximately 9% per annum over the next 5 years.
7. Indian chemical industry employs more than 2 mn people.
8. 100% FDI is allowed under the automatic route in the chemicals sector (except in case of certain hazardous chemicals)

 

16%	1.2%	10.3%	3.4%
Dyestuff and dye intermediates share (global)	Nation’s Gross Value Added	Chemical products exports share	Contribution to global chemical industry

As per the investindia government portal, the market size of the chemicals industry in India stood at $163 bn in 2017-2018
Total production of chemicals and petrochemicals stood at 47,882,000 MT during 2017-18, a 2.62% increase over 2016-17. Alkali chemicals had the largest share in the Chemical industry in India with approximately 69% share in the total production. Production of polymers account for around 59% of total production of basic major petrochemicals.
 

• The petrochemical market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10% over the next 5 years to reach $ 100 bn by 2022
• The market for crop protection chemicals in India is expected to reach $ 7.5 bn by 2019. This growth in demand is based on a rapidly growing population and a decrease in per capita availability of arable land, both of which result in a greater need to increase agricultural yield
• The specialty chemicals market has witnessed a growth of 14% in the last five years; the market size is expected to reach $ 70 bn by 2020

Growth Drivers:

Agro-chemicals : India’s 50% exports of Agro-chemical production is likely to continue
Specialty chemicals : World’s third largest polymer consumer owing to a growing Automobile industry
Construction chemicals : 100 Smart Cities by 2020 and other dependent construction projects
Colourant chemicals : 15% of global industry share
These are the major projects in the chemicals sector.
 

$2.1 bn	Petroleum & Chemical Region Project	Jagatsinghpur, Odisha
$93.6 mn	NPK Project	Mangalore, Karnataka
$78 mn	Flavors & Fragrances	Sri City, Andhra Pradesh
$78mn	Plastic Products Project	Pune, Maharashtra

There are a total of 44 projects with a $ value opportunity of $2.9 bn in 37 districts of India, out of which 39 are private projects and 5 are government projects.

So, do we see a bright future for the chemicals sector in India? You decide.