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. News
December 15, 2015 01:00 AM

Plugging the plastics gaps in India

Satnam Singh
Correspondent
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Satnam Singh
    Amit Mitra, minister for finance, excise, commerce and industries in West Bengal, center, at the opening ceremony for Indplas.

    Kolkata, India — India has the lowest per capita resin consumption of major world markets, with the Northeast region around the city of Kolkata lagging even further behind.

    But the industry is eyeing new investment in resin plants and processing infrastructure to help close the gap in the region, which has less than half the per person use of plastic as the rest of India.

    During interviews at the Indplas 2015 show, held Nov. 27-30 in Kolkata, industry officials noted new petrochemical investment coming, including projects in Orissa by Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. and Assam by Gail (India) Ltd.

    About 46 percent of India's plastics processing capacity is concentrated in states in the west of India, including in Gujarat and Maharashtra, while the east region has only 9 percent of capacity, industry figures show.

    Executives expect the new resin capacity in the east will spur more plastics processing investment.

    “With [Gail's] project coming up in Assam, another 200-250 [processing] units would likely to come up in the next few years,” said Pradip Nayyar, president of the Indplas 2015 show and co-chairman of the Plastindia 2018 trade fair.

    Some of the new processing plants will be located in polymer parks being developed with assistance from local governments. Polymer parks are clusters of plastics operations including small- and medium-sized enterprises and recyclers.

    “We are ready to offer land for a polymer park at Kharagpur and Panagarh,” said Amit Mitra, minister for finance, excise, commerce and industries in West Bengal state, at the Indplas opening ceremony.

    The Mumbai-based Plastindia Foundation also has proposed a polymer park, with space for 60 companies, on land about 20 miles from Kolkata.

    “A whole lot of possibilities have opened up for the sector with the government's announcement of various initiatives like Digital India, Skill India, and Clean India, under the ‘Make in India' program,” said Plastindia President K.K. Seksaria.

    Also, West Bengal Industrial Development Corp. is setting up a plastics industrial park for 40 companies in Sankrail, where the Indian Plastics Federation is setting up a knowledge center for skills development.

    But to achieve its maximum development, Mitra, the West Bengal finance minister, warned industry to do more to address perceptions of environmental problems from polymers, and use more biodegradable and recycled plastics.

    “The perception towards plastics has to be changed and stakeholders should sit together and find solution,” he said.

    Petrochemical plants can become large drivers of investment and employment in processing companies in India.

    Executives estimated that the large Haldia Petrochemical Ltd. plastics plant outside Kolkata spurred about 500 downstream processing plants, employing 200,000 direct and indirect workers.

    Indian Oil has already started construction of a 1.5 billion pound per year polypropylene plant in Paradip that is scheduled to be commissioned by 2017, said D. Sen, the company's director of planning and business development. The company will likely invest $4.5 billion in the next five years at the Pardip refinery on a series of projects related to the polymer sector, he said.

    Gail is building an integrated cracker and polymer complex in Assam with production startup scheduled for the middle of 2016. It will have capacity of 485 million pounds per year of polyethylene and 132 million pounds of PP.

    West Bengal, which includes Kolkata, has per capita plastics use of 10.3 pounds per year, compared with an Indian average of 21.3 pounds and a world average of 62 pounds.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Numbers That Matter Live — sign up for the next live
    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]

    Most Popular
    1
    Plastics recycling undergoing tremendous change
    2
    White House: Bioplastics goal part of ‘huge urgency' on climate
    3
    Canadian pipe maker Soleno expanding to US
    4
    Tax credits, biorefinery support sought to fulfill Biden bioplastics goal
    5
    Kraton to add SBS capacity in Ohio
    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