Downstream Petrochemical, Chemical & Plastic Processing Sector

Petroleum and petrochemical industries have close links and have always benefitted from their symbiotic relationship and any variation in the cost of crude oil and petroleum products will have a direct impact on the overall economy of petrochemicals. Providing more petrochemical feedstock instead of fuel is drawing earnest attention nowadays. In the changing scenario, petroleum refining and petrochemical production will be of vital importance for maximizing the use of byproducts and improving overall economy of a petroleum refinery. On the petrochemicals sector, present trends indicate that global ethylene demand will rise by 2.5% to 30% from existing capacity over the next seven to eight years, and by 20% to 25% in respect of propylene.

Commodity plastics are the most important component of petrochemical industry with a share of 50 percent by volume. Polymer consumption has grown at an astounding rate during the last few years and development of various petrochemical complexes has given a new dimension to plastic industry.  Plastic is now being widely used in the fields of automobile, electronics, packaging, aviation, power transmission, footwear, household articles, in agriculture, canal lining and rigid pipes in tube wells because of their light weight, toughness, corrosion resistance, ease of processing and fabrication.  Various engineering and specialty plastics and plastic alloys are finding increasing applications and are now replacing the conventional materials, including, metal wood, glass, paper, leather, cotton, steel and aluminium.  World polymer demand is about 140 million tones out of which Polyethylene (LDPE, LLDPE and HDPE combined) is the largest volume segment. In spite of 16% of the world population, our per capita consumption of most of the petrochemicals, chemicals, etc is substantially low as compared to world average and well below compared to leading economies of the world.  The per capita consumption of polymer in India is only 4 kgs as against world average of 25 kgs whereas Chinese consumption is 30 kgs per capita.

The Indian plastic processing industry had witnessed phenomenal changes during last few decades mainly due to increased availability of raw materials and new grades of quality feed stock. This was made possible by setting up of a large number of manufacturing units with imported and indigenous machinery.  Down stream processing of polymer units are fragmented and by and large concentrated in tiny, small, medium and large scale units spreading throughout the country. There are about 50,00 polymer processing units, which provide livelihood to millions of people in our country.

Synthetic rubber is playing an important role not only to overcome some of the deficiencies of natural rubber but also in meeting the gap between demand and supply of natural rubber. The per capita consumption of elastomers in India is about 0.2 kg as against the world average of 2.1 kg and 0.4 kg in China. Capacity wise styrene butadiene rubber holds the first position (43 percent) followed by polybutadiene rubber (34 percent).

At present there are about 6000 rubber industries in our country and most of them fall in small scale sector and manufacture more than 35000 different rubber products.  India is presently among the top five largest consumers of natural and synthetic rubber in the world.  It is the third largest producer of natural rubber and employs half a millon people.

Elastomers including SBR, polybutadiene and nitrile rubber will be progressively used in large quantities as the natural rubber can not meet the demand. Polymer alloys obtained by blending or alloying polymers provide cost-effective tailor-made material for specific applications and will replace the need for development of newer polymers.