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Maharashtra govt announces spl cluster & R&D centre for plastic sector
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Tuesday, 24 July, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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A special cluster, a research and development (R&D) centre and a common sharing facility for the plastic industry were announced by Subhash Desai, minister of industries and mining, Government of Maharashtra, at an ceremony organised recently by the Plastics Export Promotion Council (PLEXCONCIL) to honour top exporters of plastics with Council Awards for the financial years (FY) 2015-16 and 2016-17.
The winners included Reliance Industries Ltd, Garware Wall Ropes Ltd, Garware Polyester Ltd, Supreme Industries Ltd, Greenlam Industries Ltd, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd, Merino Industries Ltd, Polyplex Corporation Ltd, Flexituff International Limited, Vacmet India Ltd, CRI Ltd, Prima Plastics Ltd, Sheela Foam Pvt Ltd, Condor Footwear (India) Ltd, National Plastic Industries Ltd, Poly Medicure Ltd, IVL Dhunseri Petrochem Industries Pvt Ltd, Tokyo Plast International Ltd, Prince Corp, Gillette Diversified Operations (P) Ltd, Bhim Polyfab Industries, Flair Writing Industries Ltd and Linc Pen & Plastics Ltd, amongst others.
PLEXCONCIL was represented by A K Basak, chairman; Pradip Thakkar, immediate past chairman; Sribash Dasmohapatra, executive director, and Ravish Kamath, regional chairman, southern region.
Basak said, “PLEXCONCIL awards are an acknowledgement and testimony to the efforts and initiatives of plastics exporters. 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,” he added.
Basak said, “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.”
“Besides, the Council also intends to bring new businesses into the export fold by creating awareness for exports,” he added.
Plastic exports up
PLEXCONCIL informed that India’s export of plastics posted a growth of 17.1 per cent, touching $8.85 billion during the year 2017-18 as against $7.56 billion in 2016-17. It added that it registered a faster pace of growth than the overall merchandise export growth from India.
“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,” the Council stated.
It added that India’s plastic exports during the year were primarily boosted by the higher shipments of plastic raw materials and value-added plastic products, including woven sacks/flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBCs), plastic sheets/films/plates, optical items, laminates, packaging items and medical disposables to the European Union (EU), North America, Latin America and the Caribbean and North-East Asia.
India’s plastic product exports to the United States were valued at $1.11 billion during the year.
Growth potential
Desai said, “I am really happy to be here today at the awards function of PLEXCONCIL. As an industry, plastics are going to stay, and the plastics business has a big role to play in the economy.”
“It creates jobs and wealth for our country. Our share in global trade is very small and India is trying to enhance its footprints in global exports,” he added.
“Plastic is one industry where we can increase exports to the world. Maharashtra has taken several initiatives, such as Central Institutes for Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPETs) for research and development, technology and entrepreneurs,” Desai said.
“We have announced plans to develop 10 textile parks and five defence manufacturing facilities in Maharashtra,” he added.
“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,” Desai said.
“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, amongst others,” he added.
“I appeal to the Council and industry captains to think of innovative creative ideas to recycle plastics,” Desai stated.
“In ease of doing business, Maharashtra’s rankings went down, but we have made quick amendments and created a common convenience platform named Maitree,” the minister added.
“Eighteen different departments have come together to create this single-window facility for businessmen and entrepreneurs. We are confident that Maharashtra will regain its leading position in the ease of doing business,” he said.
Need to broaden global presence
Shyamal Misra, joint secretary, ministry of commerce and industry, Government of India, was present at the event. He said, “The sector’s presence in existing and new markets across the globe must be increased.”
“I take this opportunity to congratulate the exporters for their tremendous efforts to augment plastic exports, with special emphasis on quality and reliability. I hope the organisation will create a platform for the industry to debate and introspect on the future course of action for enhancing exports,” he added.
“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 three per cent of India’s overall merchandise exports in FY18, but we need to work to doubling this share,” Misra added.
“Plastic exports have phenomenal potential, and we need to enhance our presence in the existing markets (France, Japan, Germany, etc.) and discover new markets such as Latin America, Africa, CIS and Asia,” he added.
“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,” Misra said.
“We urge experienced industry captains to mentor the new players and encourage them to excel. We hope plastics exporters help India become a $5 trillion economy,” he added.
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