India sees good potential for growth in Mexico

Mexico City — Mexico and India are seeing growth in plastics trade between the two countries.

Bilateral trade between India and Mexico, including plastics products, grew 31 percent in the first eight months of this year in relation to the same period in 2016, the head of the commercial wing at the Indian Embassy in Mexico said Nov. 7.

In an interview with Plastics News at Plastimagen México 2017, Ashwani Kumar said bilateral trade between the two nations totaled $6.3 billion in 2016, with India having a surplus of about $2 billion. Mexico's exports to India were $2 billion, he said, and India's to Mexico were $4.28 billion.

India's Ambassador to Mexico, Muktesh K. Pardeshi, said in a separate interview that trade between the two "is likely to top $8 billion this year."

According to India's Plastics Export Promotion Council (PLEXCONCIL), based in Mumbai, India's exports of plastics goods to Mexico grew 32.5 percent a year in the 10 years before this year.

"In the last five years, India´s plastics exports to Mexico have grown significantly, going from $51 million in 2012-13 to $97 million in 2016-17," it said.

PLEXCONCIL said that in 2016-17, India's exports of plastics products to 210-plus countries totaled $7.6 billion, with the main markets being the United States, China, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

In August 2017, the country's plastics exports were valued at $706.34 million, up 14 percent from $619.82 million in the same month a year earlier. "The cumulative value of plastic exports from April 2017 to August 2017 was $3.355 billion as against $3.101 billion during the same period the previous year — a growth of 8.2 percent."

Pardeshi and Kumar spoke to Plastics News during a visit to the India pavilion at Plastimagen, occupied by 24 Indian companies.

"We see very good potential for the Indian plastics industry in Mexico," Pardeshi said, while Raju Desai, treasurer of the Plastindia Foundation, which will organize next February's Plastindia show in Gandhinagar said: "We have good technology at affordable prices."

Pardeshi and Desai said the Indian government will invite a number of Mexican companies to India for Plastindia and will cover all travel and accommodation costs. "Mexico is India's No. 1 trading partner in Latin America in the plastics industry," said Desai.

PLEXCONCIL participated in Plastimagen México for the fourth time. According to the organization, plastics is among the fastest growing industries in India with 30,000-plus plastics processing units that employ in excess of 4 million people.

About 200 machinery companies, with different scales of technology, supply an estimated 3,000 machines a year.

Dipesh Patel, international business manager of pigment supplier Advaitya Dye-Chem, one of the 24 companies in the India pavilion, said that Mexico's plastics industry is "growing very fast."

We started doing business in Mexico 30 months ago, and we already have three or four customers here. Our target is to have 10 or 12 within the next 18 months," Patel said.

The company's clients are masterbatch and ink suppliers. It does business in 10 countries, including Brazil and Mexico.