Mr.Bipin Shah, Chairman-International Business Relations Committee, PlastIndia Foundation and member of plastemart.com's advisory board, made a very informative presentation called "India - the emerging opportunities in India in the Plastics Processing Industry", at Singapore in March 2002. Given below is the extract of his presentation.

India is one of the oldest civilizations, with a population of over one billion (17% of the World Population). India has consistently shown a GDP growth of more than 6%since the introduction of economic reforms in 1991. During this period, plastic consumption has grown from just about one million tonnes to almost 3.4 million tonnes in 2000, showing an average growth of almost 13.5%.

The healthy demand elasticity of ‘2.25xGDP Growth’ is an indicator of the inherent potential of plastics in India’s projected future for the next decade, in which the economy is likely to show a consistent growth of about 6%, if not better. The consuming population level is expected to reach more than 0.5 billion people from approximately 0.175 billion in 2000. This increase in demand of the consuming population is as big as that of USA or Western Europe. The second highest World GDP growth shown by India during the last 10 years will definitely continue in the coming decade. A healthy economic growth will fuel the demand of plastics. The expected demand at the optimistic level of 13.5-14% from 2000 to 2010 will reach a level of 12.5 million tonnes. This will make India as the third largest plastics consuming country in the World by 2010 from it's tenth position in 2000.

Indian plastic processing industry is characterised by a very wide fragmentation with an average consumption level of about 150 tonnes/unit. The fragmented industry with a processing capacity of 10 million, is presently operating at not more than 45-50% level. To meet the growth potential of plastics, the industry needs to develop an increased capacity on one side. But on the other side, it needs to develop the most economic production capacity with better efficiency and automation to remain competitive in the face of global competition.

India definitely offers an ample opportunity to the globally leading converters to tap the potential of a huge consumption increase of almost 8-9 million tonnes in the next decade. India can be used as a global sourcing point for plastics products in several sectors like automobiles, electronics, packaging, etc. The joint ventures in India would help the global players to participate more actively in the buoyant and vibrant growth of plastics in India.

The complete presentation can be viewed by clicking here