Chemical industry to more than double to $300 billion by 2025

The chemicals industry is expected more than double and touch USD 300 billion by 2025 from USD 147 billion now, according to Chemexcil.

"The chemical sector is expected to double to USD 300 billion by 2025, clocking an annual growth rate of 15-20 per cent. To achieve this, government is also working on a draft chemical policy that will focus on meeting the rising demand f0r chemicals and reduce imports," chemicals export promotion council (Chemexcil) chairman Satish Wagh told PTI here.

The industry is also targeting chemical exports of USD 18 billion by 2020 from USD 12 billion in FY17. In the first half of this fiscal, exports rose almost 27 per cent to USD 7.19 billion.

The domestic chemical industry is the third largest in Asia and seventh in the world.

The impact of measures initiated by government will be visible from the current financial onwards, he said.

But he blamed the pollution control boards for the slower growth in the industry since the past five years.

Production of certain chemicals has been significantly restricted by the various pollution control boards, Wagh said.

"We are unable to increase production to meet the demand. Over the past five years, there has been no capacity expansion by any of the companies because we don't get clearances from PCBs. This has dented our exports which provides huge opportunities and, of late, is also impacting domestic industries," said Wagh, adding this has led to large scale imports from China.

"The domestic industry is simply unable to meet the demand due to policy bottlenecks. This is why Chinese manufacturers are hurting our industry," Wagh said.

Several policy measures taken by the commerce ministry in its review of mid-term foreign trade policy for 2015-20 and incentives for MSMEs in the Budget will help us in achieving our growth target, he said.