Comments
The $40-billion Indian petrochemicals industry is expected to grow at 12-15 per cent annually over the next five years and generate millions of new jobs, says an Assocham study.
The sector, which employs more than 10 lakh people, would attract foreign funds as the global petrochemical industry moves eastwards - in Asia and the Middle East - with major hubs being set up in these regions, it said.
With sales of $2.5 trillion in 2010, the global petrochem industry is moving eastwards which presents opportunity for India to attract investments in the sector, it added.
“This (movement) simultaneously represents a tremendous window of opportunity for Indian chemical and petrochemical industries,” Assocham said in the study, Mark Up for Growth: PCPIR in Andhra Pradesh.
India can take advantage of this shift and attract large funds from investors keen to invest in the region near mega demand centres - India and China.
However, the Indian industry faces major competition from hubs in China, Singapore and the Middle East to grab a share of the investment pie. India needs to maintain certain levels of competitiveness and cost effectiveness to tackle this competition, it said.
The government, so far, has notified four petroleum, chemicals and petrochemical investment regions (PCPIRs) - Dahej in Gujarat, Haldia in West Bengal, Paradeep in Orissa and Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
The proposal of the Tamil Nadu government for a PCPIR at Cuddalore is in the pipeline. Another project at Mangalore in Karnataka is at planning stage.
In Andhra Pradesh investment zone, major players like Hindustan Petroleum, LG Polymers, Coromandel Fertilisers, Andhra Petrochemicals, Godavari Fertilisers and Chemicals and Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals have shown interest to set up units.
Meanwhile, according to the global consultancy firm McKinsey, about one-third of the specialty chemicals business worldwide could move to Asia by 2020.
By 2020, approximately $350 billion of the projected $1 trillion global specialty chemical industry could move to Asia (excluding Japan), driven by downstream demand and competitive manufacturing costs, the firm had said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.