Foreign investment in the sunrise composites (reinforced plastic) industry, which is currently around Rs 700 crore, is set to increase by as much as Rs 1,000 crores over the next 4-5 years, said Pradip Thakkar, Chairman, ICERP 2008.
Major foreign companies like Owens Corning have already invested substantial amounts and there are various multi-national companies (MNCs) like Dupont, Pentair, DSM, Hepworth, Beluga Tanks, Fibergate, Suzlon and Enercon have entered the Indian market with large investments.
Speaking at the International Conference & Exhibition on Reinforced Plastics ICERP 2008 in Mumbai on Thursday, Thakkar said the industry is looking for government support especially with regard to fiscal incentives, research assistance and to create a greater awareness with regard to the use of composites in various industries especially pipes for water and sewage transportation, street light poles, telecom cables, automotives, chemical tanks and equipment as also defense applications.
In his address, Satish Kulkarni, chairman FRP Institute (Chennai) said world’s reinforced plastics industry was estimated at about $85 billion and there is a huge untapped market for reinforced plastics in India. It is estimated that the total production would go up to 8 lakh tonne by 2020 from current 80,000 tonne.
North America has 40% of the composites industry’s total market value, 35% for Europe, 32% for the Asia-Pacific region and 3% for the rest of the world. The production of composites involves combining polymer and glass fiber or carbon fiber in order to produce a material that is lighter yet stronger than steel.