Chemical industry to grow at 9% yearly

Mumbai: The country’s chemical industry is expected to grow at around 9 per cent per annum to reach $304 billion by FY25, from $163 billion in FY18, a report said.  

The growth is likely to be driven by rising demand in end-use segments for specialty chemicals and petrochemicals intermediates, said the India Chem Strategy report by Tata Strategic group, brought in association with industry body Ficci. 

The country's chemical industry is one of the fastest growing in the world, currently ranked the third largest in Asia and sixth globally with respect to output after the US, China, Germany, Japan and Korea.
  
The study said the domestic chemical sector (other than fertiliser) attracted FDI investment of $1.3 billion in FY18, which is about 3 per cent of the total FDI inflow. 

Noting that the domestic chemical industry's growth is largely driven by country's consumption growth story, the report said the per capita consumption of chemicals in the country is 1/10th of world average with India a low consumption country even among developing nations. 
 
"Indian consumption is low. This makes India a very attractive destination to invest and grow," the report said. 

The study also noted that Indian chemical companies have started focusing on global markets for investments. 

Recently, India's largest agrochemical company, United Phosphorous, announced the acquisition of Arysta Lifescience for about $4.2 billion.  
Among the other mega projects, Saudi Aramco showed interest in investing $44,000 million in mega petrochemical project, ONGC plans investment of $11,000 million in greenfield oil and gas project and Sabic is investing $4,300 mn in brownfield petrochemical complex.