Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Viewpoint
April 29, 2015 02:00 AM

India's processors aim high, but breaking bottlenecks is key

Steve Toloken
Assistant Managing Editor
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Toloken

    Economically speaking, can India become the next China?

    That was the question underneath a lot of conversations at the recent Plastindia 2015 trade fair in Gandhinagar.

    Not that India will follow China's path, it has its own model.

    But for global businesses, it's very tantalizing to analyze the possibility of 1.2 billion Indians (or even a few hundred million Indians) doing what China has done in the last 20 or 30 years. A big new economic frontier.

    Right now, India punches below its weight as far as plastics. India's per person use of plastics is only 10 kilograms a year, which is one-third of Brazil, one-fourth of China and one-tenth of the U.S.

    The government has big goals. Last year new Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a “Make in India” campaign whose stated goal is to “transform India into a global manufacturing hub.”

    Sound too ambitious? I remember going to Plastindia in 2009 and seeing many optimistic advertisements by the show organizers saying India would be a “global plastics processing hub” by 2012. That didn't happen.

    But fear not, the potential's there. One of the best examples of that manufacturing promise came last year when India sent its Mangalyaan satellite to Mars for $74 million.

    That's less than the $100 million Hollywood spent to make the movie “Gravity” and about 10 percent of what it cost NASA to send its own Maven satellite to Martian orbit last year.

    If you don't believe me, Google it and see international media make that connection.

    I saw the same kind of low-cost innovation potential in the plastics industry. Foreign plastics companies like Milacron LLC and Toshiba Machine have made big investments there, banking on big growth.

    Milacron's global injection machine design unit is led by an Indian national from the company's Ahmedabad, India, factory.

    A lot of sectors in India, from packaging to automotive, are ripe for development. India's cars use just a fraction of the engineering plastics in cars in developed markets, so you have a sort of double-whammy of the economic potential of more cars, and growth in the amount of plastics in each car.

    Not that I got to ride much in cars while I was there.

    This year the Plastindia show moved to Gandhinagar, outside Ahmedabad. Taxis were non-existent, and every day we'd take an auto rickshaw back and forth the 25 kilometers from the hotel to the show grounds.

    I remember one ride home, sharing a rickshaw on the 35-40 minute trip with an Indian engineer whose company sells auto parts to rickshaw manufacturers.

    He mentioned to me, casually, that the rickshaws had no structural support. If we were in an accident, there would be pounds of sheet metal coming straight at us.

    Comforting, I thought, as we dodged trucks, motorbikes and the occasional camel-drawn cart.

    India's always interesting.

    There's great food, much of it vegetarian, so you feel like it's better for your health and the planet. The owners of my hotel were devout vegetarians and did not serve any meat to guests.

    Another common business travel staple was hard to get. Gujarat, where the show was held, is a dry state. You can only buy alcohol if you have a license — so I got a license, more as a souvenir than anything else.

    (I should say that I learned from going to a small party in someone's private house, alcohol still seems to be pretty widely available in Ahmedabad.)

    Can I call that a contradiction? I think so. But it's those things you remember.

    On a more serious note, I think India's plastics industry has its own big contradiction I've noticed on my five trips there.

    There's constant talk of the potential of the country and Indian manufacturers. But there's always talk about how India's machine manufacturers and processors need protection from foreign imports. The industry frequently asks the government for higher tariffs, arguing they're being overwhelmed by foreign competition.

    It points to the larger contradiction in India. There's a lot of potential and some very good companies. But there are still many bottlenecks that keep companies from being as competitive as their counterparts in other countries. That surely stands in the way of India being the global manufacturing hub it aspires to.

    One thing's for sure, though: the world's plastics industry is increasingly watching India.

    Toloken is Plastics News' news editor-international.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Safety, industry image lead 2023 agenda
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified