Fuelled by increasing level of plastics usage in automobiles, consumer packaging and impact of increased infrastructure spending, the plastics industry is set to double per capita consumption in next five years. This was revealed in an exhaustive study on plastics industry by Plastindia Foundation.

The study titled "Report on Indian Plastics Industry 2012-2016" covered all aspects and concluded that the growth prospects of this industry are bright as the per capita consumption of polymers industry in the country during 2012-13 was low at just 9.7 kg as compared to 109 kg in USA, 45 kg in China and as high as 32 kg in a country like Brazil. Plastics industry would be a direct beneficiary of increasing per capita income, rising consumerisation and impact of modern ways of living particularly in urban India.

Sharing the highlights of the report, J.R. Shah, Chairman, National Executive Council, Plastindia 2015 said, "India is a growing market for plastics and consumes about 11 million tonnes annually against a global consumption of 275 million tonne per year and worldwide, the plastics and polymer consumption is growing at an average rate of ten percent and is expected to touch 16.5 million tonnes by 2016."

"The plastics industry is conscious of its responsibilities as the consumption increases" said Subash Kadakia, President, Plastindia Foundation. "Increasing capacity of plastics recycling is a priority. We are working closely with many authorities to increase the efficiency of waste management processes. Plastindia Foundation is continuously embarking upon education initiatives at various levels in our society" he concluded.

The report points out that about 30,000 processing units with 113,000 processing machines have created manufacturing capacity of 30 million metric tonnes per annum. This has been achieved with a 13% CAGR of processing capacity during last 5 years. The industry has invested $5 billion in the machinery and it is expected to make further project investment of $10 billion for further increase in capacities during the next 5 years.

The Plastindia Foundation estimates that the demand for polymers to jump to 16.5 million metric tonnes by 2016-17 from 11 million tonnes during 2012-13, resulting in consumption rising by 10.8% CAGR. The Foundation estimates major polymers manufacturing capacities during the same period to reach 15.2 million metric tonnes from 10.4 million metric tones respectively.

Thus, the new capacity addition in major polymers such as PE, PP, PVC, PS and PET by 2016-17 is estimated at 4.8 million MTs. Some of the major producers in the industry include Reliance Industries, IOC, Haldia Petrochem and Gail. As against this, the report estimates the total polymer (Thermoplastics and Thermosets) consumption to grow 10.7% CAGR from 11.8 million MTs in 2012-13 to 17.6 million MT.

India is expected to be among top ten packaging consumers in the world by 2016 with demand set to reach $24 billion. The growth in sector wise consumption of PE is estimated by the Plastindia Foundation from 3.4 million MTs in 2012-13 to 4.9 million MTs by 2016-17, recording a 9.6% CAGR. There is also tremendous growth prospects of 17% CAGR for PET consumption from one million MTs in 2012-13 to 1.9 million tones by 2016-17.