According to various sources, India's annual per-capita consumption of plastics has now reached 8 kg, compared to 5 kg five years ago. This is a value still far below that of North American and European countries, and will remain so even in 2020 despite a substantial projected increase to 20 kg.
The rapid expansion of various application sectors – e.g. the automotive industry is growing at a pace of 18% a year (with different carmakers having in recent years set up manufacturing plants in the country) and the 2012-2017 five-year plan has allocated 1000 billion dollars to infrastructure investments – is obviously expected to have a strong impact on the processing industry. For example, consumption of plastics for producing irrigation systems could reach 2.5 million tons by 2015.
A particular cause for concern for Indian processors – who also face a shortage of qualified personnel – are rising tariffs on imported raw materials, since the demand for polymers is largely met by imports due to the very limited local production.