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Commodity plastics have not grown well during the
first half of this financial year. In fact, figures indicate some
negative growth. However, the second half of the year could bring
about some moderate growth. The non-vinyl masterbatches sector continues
to show at least 10% growth in 2002-2003 despite the lull in commodity
plastics consumption.
Processors have found the advantages of enhanced dispersion and
improved housekeeping at a very modest cost. The raffia sector still
continues to be the most dominating sector consuming almost 25-30KT
of antifibrillation masterbatch alone. Colour masterbatches continue
to be the major component from the remaining 42-43KT. In fact, white
and black colours together account for almost 32KT (22KT for white
and 10KT for black). Other coloured masterbatches could account
for almost 7-8KT. The additive masterbatches particularly used for
BOPP film or even Polyethylene and PET film are expected to develop
volumes of about 4KT. While the masterbatch for PE telephone ducting
has not been able to maintain its growth in the last 2 years, the
UV, cling, nucleation, stiffness enhancing additives masterbatches
have grown quite well. The consumption pattern of masterbatches
across various application sectors is:
| Sector |
Consumption in 2002-2003(KT) |
| Raffia/Fiber |
28-32 |
| Film |
22-25 |
| Pipe/Profile/Cable |
3 |
| Blow Moulded Containers |
7 |
| Total |
70 |
The industry continues adding manufacturing capacities, since
the entry barriers are quite low. In fact, the manufacture of antifibrillation
masterbatch has been very widely spread across the country. While
actual capacity of dedicated masterbatch manufacturing is quite
difficult to determine, it is estimated that the total capacity
is more than 175KT compared to almost 70KT consumption in 2002-3
financial year. There are several small-scale producers with one
or two manufacturing lines. Some of them are quite happy to even
utilize their capacity over 10-12 hours production in a day.
It is estimated that there are more than 200 producers of masterbatches
out of which only 20-25 have capacity more than 1000T/year.
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Plastiblends with 15000T/year manufacturing capacity is undoubtedly
the largest dedicated masterbatch producer. |
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Plastichemix, Poddar Pigments, K K Polycolour and Clariant are
some of the other large producers. |
Some of the technically demanding additives as well as colour
masterbatches are being imported. The most active international
suppliers are Schulman and Ampacet. At the same time, some of the
Indian manufacturers have started exporting the masterbatches to
the Middle East/Africa region.
The industry experts feel very optimistic about the growth potential
of masterbatches in India. While the opinions may vary but most
of the experts feel that the growth would be at least a few percent
higher than the growth of Polyolefins. The growth of masterbatches
is linked with the Polyolefins, since they consume more than 85-90%
of the total consumption of masterbatches in India.
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