India has, over the years, developed strengths in sectors like dyestuffs, pesticides, organic and inorganic chemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, plastics, rubber processing, synthetic fibres etc. India is also strategically located in Asia. These are our strengths and these must be fully exploited with more efficient and quality oriented facilities to increase our share in the world market. There is tremendous scope of growth in India in the chemical sector. The per capita consumption of chemicals is well below the prevailing world level.

The Indian chemical industry can well remain competitive vis-a-vis its counterparts in developed nations, even after fully complying with the Indian environmental regulations both in letter and in spirit. Following are the major sectors of the chemical industry:

Organic Chemical Industry: The Indian organic chemical industry (covering petrochemicals, bulk organic chemicals and speciality chemicals) in the country is characterised by uneconomic capacities, fragmented production base and poor marketing focus. However, the industry can be viewed in terms of players with distinct characteristics. There are the large petrochemical cracker operating companies such as Reliance and ICPL producing all key commodity plastics plus a slew of other bulk chemicals. There are single polymer manufacturing companies who procure either the basic chemical or the intermediate to make the commodity polymer. In bulk organic chemicals, there is a range- from benzene based producers such as Hindustan Organic Chemicals and Herdillia Chemicals to fertiliser companies which have diversified into products such as caprolactum and methanol. Another separate group is the molasses (industrial alcohol) based chemical producers some of whom even compete with petro-based manufacturers in products such as MFG, acetic acid and VAM. In addition, there are the speciality chemical companies which at the upper end are dominated by multinational companies such as Ciba Specialities.

Petrochemicals: The petrochemical market in India is essentially supply driven. Growth rates for various commodity polymers and polyester have been in double digits helping Indian companies to keep operating at high rates even in the face of a reduction in price. As Reliance has shown, Indian companies can build that extra cost advantage by world class delivery systems to a fragmented market, thereby keeping the working capital costs of the customers low. Integrated large producers, IPCL and Reliance, are well placed to ride out of the through of the price cycle and in fact are investing further to maintain the market share. Single polymer companies do not have the pricing flexibility of a cracker complex through some