Country Focus
India’s plastics show promotes technology for the country With 1,800 exhibitors from 44 countries, the tenth Plastindia 2018 show, held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat, closed on a high note with 246,000 visitors over the six days from 7-12 February. Meanwhile, officials from the organiser, Plastindia Foundation, announced that the next show in 2021 would move back to its original venue in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, which is currently under
The Plastindia show had its second showcase in Gujarat and is expected to move back to Delhi in 2021
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ndia is the seventh largest manufacturing base in the world and is expected to have a youth population of 464 million by 2021. The country is also expected to invest almost US$2 trillion on infrastructure with nearly 90 million jobs expected to be created over the next decade. For the plastics sector, registering a 12% growth rate, there are 30,000 processing units, 4 million jobs and over 2,000 exporters involved, according to Plastindia Foundation, the organiser of the show. Materials firms expand in India Belgium-headquartered multi-speciality chemical company Solvay confirmed that construction of its new Veradel polyethersulphone (PESU) production unit in Panoli remains on schedule to reach full capacity by mid-2019 to support growing local and global demand. The Panoli plant currently produces Solvay’s KetaSpire polyetheretherketone (PEEK), AvaSpire polyaryletherketones (PAEK), Solvay confirmed that construction of its new PESU production unit in Panoli remains on schedule polyetherketoneketone (PEKK), PESU and monomers. It is also Solvay's largest plant worldwide for PEEK and PAEK polymers. Amlan Das, Managing Director for India at Solvay’s Specialty Polymers global business unit, said, “When Solvay started up in India it acquired an Indian company and invested in PESU and PEKK products.” He said the company mainly exports its products to Europe and the US as the Indian market is not mature yet. “But now with the investment in a brownfield site for PESU, we hope to cater to the medical domestic market, especially for haemodialysis membrane production,” added Das. Meanwhile, Jitender Kumar Bharihoke, General Manager of Solvay’s Performance Polyamides business unit in India, said, “With the Indian market for engineering polymers expected to grow at around 16% a year over the next five years, further investments for next level growth are under analysis.” The engineering plastics plant was acquired in 2011 from PI industries and Solvay has since been building up its capabilities. “With a capacity of 10,000 tonnes/year, we are now actively engaged in the market and in fact, are now the top three of market players,” said Jitender, adding that the total engineering plastics business in India has a 70,000 tonne-market size, with Solvay capturing 12% of the market share. “Therefore, we intend to double the size of the company in four years,” he said adding, “We may look at debottlenecking or tolling in the future for capacity expansion and also increase capacity.”