Sabyasachi Majumdar
Senior Vice President & Group Head, ICRA Ltd
Sabyasachi Majumdar
Senior Vice President & Group Head, ICRA Ltd
Specialty chemical sector to witness multi-year growth cycle
The Specialty Chemicals industry is expected to double by 2025, supported by both domestic and export markets. The drivers for the growth are rising disposable incomes, China Plus One strategy of global companies and ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ policy of GoI. The rise in disposable incomes is leading to a shift in consumer preferences towards more premium products. Accordingly, a key differentiator in the industry is the ability to move to more value-added products through R&D and process expertise.
One of the key impediments in the growth of the sector remains the dependence on imports for raw materials for several sub-segments. Keeping in mind the vast growth potential of the sector, some of the steps by GOI including - rationalisation of duty structure, trade protection measures for several petrochemicals, rules to avoid misuse of FTAs and revamping the plans for cluster based development of petrochemical units, should help in increasing domestic feedstock capacity in the medium term.
