'Indian chemical industry to surge to $226 bn in three years'

Mumbai, March 24: The Indian chemical industry is expected to surge to $226 billion by 2020, up by nearly 35 percent from $147 billion in 2015, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said here on Friday.

Though exports have declined to 7.8 percent from $12.66 billion in 2014-2015 to $11.67 billion in 2015-2016 in value terms, in terms of volumes, they notched a remarkable growth of 7.51 percent from 52.9 lakh tonnes in 2014-2015 to 56.9 lakh tonnes in 2015-2016, she said at the CHEMEXCIL export awards function here.

"In the current year, April 2016-January 2017, exports have grown by 1.5 percent in value and 7.59 percent in volume. The Indian chemicals industry, the third-largest producer in Asia and 12th in the world, is most resilient in exports. The impact of measures initiated by the government will be visible from the current financial onwards," she said.

Sitharaman said that the domestic chemical industry, which employs around two million people, is a key constituent of the Indian economy and the country is the fourth largest producer of agrochemicals. 

The top export awards for 2015-2016 were bagged by Reliance Industries for chemicals, Ambuja Intermediates for Dyes and Dye Intermediates, Ishedu Agrochem for Castor Oil and Speciality Chemicals, and VVF India for Cosmetics and Toiletries.

Amit Pthalo Pigments' Shankerbhai Patel and Emmessar Biotech & Nutrition's Ashok Manilal Kadakia were conferred with the Life Time Achievement Awards and 55 awards were given away in different categories.

CHEMEXCIL Chairman Satish Wagh said that the winning formula of government's policy support to exporters' determination to grow is bound to increase their share in the world market, since India already has talent, technology and infrastructure.

"The reduction in corporate tax for MSME by five percent, introduction of Trade Infrastructure Export Scheme will help Indian exporters reduce transaction costs to become globally competitive, and other initiatives like CBEC's single window interface for facilitating trade (SWIFT), Make In India, certain norms relaxed for environmental issues and upcoming GST rollout would spur the sector's growth further," he said.