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Tubular Quench PP (TQPP) film has played a very
significant role in India from the beginning of 70s when PP was
introduced in India. The low capital investment required for TQPP
film suited the Indian plastic converting industry that was predominantly
at a small scale. Additionally the large textile industry that used
the transparent film by manual packaging helped the TQPP sector.
In fact, both Cellophane and PVC films used earlier by the textile
industry could easily be replaced by TQPP film. It is therefore
not surprising that TQPP film has attained a consumption level of
almost 220KT in 2001 out of the total PP film consumption of about
270KT. In fact, TQPP film sector is the third largest PP application
segment after moulding and film fibers. TQPP film at 220KT in 2001
has almost 20% share of the total PP consumption of 1050KT. The
increasing usage of flexible packaging in India has helped TQPP
film sector to register more than 15-17 % growth in the last decade.
The developed regions have predominantly concentrated in BOPP film
that has resulted in the global consumption of BOPP film almost
at 3.1 million tonnes (almost 10% of the total PP consumption of
32 million tonnes in 2001). Even the South East Asian regions including
China have moved from TQPP to BOPP in the last 5-10 years. However,
the growth of TQPP film in India seems to be quite buoyant. In fact,
if we go by the recent developments that were discussed in the Conference
conducted by Indian Plastics Institute on 29th August 2002 at Mumbai,
the growth is expected to be even better in the next 5 years. Some
of the key developments that would drive this growth are:
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Developments of higher productivity
TQPP plant with higher width and better control on thickness
distribution. |
Rajoo Enginners Ltd, an Indian film extrusion supplier has commercialized
plants that are capable to produce TQPP film at almost 2.5 times
that older generation plants. (145kg/hr compared to 50-60kg/hr).
These new plants are based on modified barrier screw design specially
developed by Rajoo Engineers, Ltd to have very low increase in melt
temperature/pressure at higher shear rates needed to achieve higher
outputs. Several other modifications in melt filtration system,
die design, cooling systems etc have also been implemented to achieve
the layflat tubing of 1200 mm compared to the earlier 600 mm. The
entire equipment system is designed to produce film thick ness variation
of maximum 10% at 2-sigma standard deviation. The enhanced thickness
distribution would help in producing flatter film that is more suitable
for automatic packaging machine. Alpha Plastomer, the largest TQPP
film producer in India has already commissioned 11 plants of these
latest technology.
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Value added applications |
TQPP film market so far is mainly concentrated in those areas where
manual packaging is required. In fact the major usage was mainly
focussed where bags of several sizes were required. Lower rigidity
and wider thickness distribution compared to BOPP/Cast PP film restricted
TQPP film to have any significant share in the automatic FFS packaging.
At the same time lack of softness compared to PE film restricted
the use of TQPP film in those areas where softness is of prime consideration.
Reliance Industries Ltd that almost has 75-80% share of the Indian
TQPP film market, is now developing both softer as well as the stiffer
PP grades to meet these two key requirements of the market. Apparently,
the softer grade based on Terpolymer has already met with some success.
It would therefore be not surprising to see some usage of TQPP film
for FFS packaging that can utilize the low sealing characteristics
of PP terpolymer. The stiffer grade is at the development stage
and may become commercialized very soon.
The future developments on coextruded TQ film plant would definitely
pave the way to enhance usage of TQPP film in the higher value added
applications.
These developments indeed would drive a higher growth of TQPP film
in the next decade. It would therefore be quite reasonable to expect
that India continue to maintain more than 16-18% average growth
of TQPP films in the coming decade. Do not therefore be surprised
if the TQPP film demand could reach at least 800KT if not 1 million
tonne by 2010. Indeed if it happens then only TQPP film consumption
in 2010 would be at almost the same level of 2000.
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