Mumbai, July 24, 2018

 

Maharashtra is reportedly planning to set up special cluster, R&D centre and common sharing facility for plastics industry. “Maharashtra has taken several initiatives such as CPETs for research and development, technology and entrepreneurs. We have announced plans to develop 10 textile parks and 5 defence manufacturing facilities in Maharashtra. We are actively considering a special cluster for plastics industry where common facility centres will be available to all types of plastic manufacturers and exporters for accessing these facilities,” said Subhash Desai, Maharashtra State Minister for Industries & Mining, while speaking at the Plastics Export Promotion Council (Plexconcil) award ceremony in Mumbai. 

 

Desai added, “We can reserve plots for different large, medium and small players in the plastics industry with the help of the council. We want to create R&D centres for the plastics industry among others. I appeal to the council and industry captains to think of innovative creative ideas to recycle plastics.”      

 

India’s export of plastics posted a growth of 17.1 per cent at $ 8.85 billion during the year 2017-18 as against $ 7.56 billion in 2016-17, registering a faster pace of growth than the overall merchandise export growth from India, as per Plexconcil. 

 

Shyamal Mishra, Jt Secretary, Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, commented, “As an industry, we need to sit together and formalise an export strategy that will take us to the next level. Plastics exports are less than 3 per cent of India’s overall merchandise exports in FY18 but we need to work to doubling this share. Plastic exports have phenomenal potential and we need to enhance presence in existing (France, Japan, Germany, etc) and discover new markets such as Latin America, Africa, CIS and Asia. The proportion of raw materials in our exports is still very high and we need to target value added product exports. We should increase exports of value added products such as engineering plastics, bio plastics and bio polymers. We hope plastics exporters help India become a $ 5 trillion economy.”

 

AK Basak, Chairman, Plexconcil, said, “India's plastics industry offers immense potential in terms of capacity, infrastructure and skilled manpower. India is currently ranked among the top five consumers of polymers in the world and has 30,000 plus plastic processing units employing over four million people across the country. The target is difficult, but achievable, and the Council intends to take concerted efforts towards this front with the assistance of its members through upgradation in technology, increased R&D spend, and innovative marketing strategies directed towards increased export of value-added plastic products from India.” 

 

According to Plexconcil, plastics formed 2.92 per cent of India’s overall merchandise exports in 2017-18, a tad higher than the 2.74 per cent share held in 2016-17. India’s plastics export during the year were primarily boosted by higher shipment of plastic raw materials and value-added plastic products including woven sacks/FIBC, plastic sheets/films/plates, optical items, laminates, packaging items, and medical disposables to the European Union, North America, Latin America & Caribbean, and North-East Asia. India’s plastic product exports to the US were valued at $ 1.11 billion during the year.