Chemical industry is one of the most significant contributors to the growth and development of Indian economy. It not only serves as the major backbone of Indian agriculture and industrial sectors, but also adds to India’s foreign reserves by way of exports to several countries across the globe. 34% of India’s export earnings come from its chemical industry which is currently the third largest producer in Asia in major chemical categories including agrochemicals, polymers and plastics, dyes and various organic and inorganic chemicals.
Chemical exports of India comprise several product groups such as inorganic and organic chemicals, plastics and petrochemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, dyes and pigments, pesticides and agrochemicals, fine and specialty chemicals, and fertilizers. Organic chemicals and pharmaceuticals are the two top exports of India in this category earning India $12.1 billion and $11.7 billion respectively in 2014. Indian chemical industry is made of a large number of small, medium and large sized companies in both public and private sector. These chemical companies in India are growing at a phenomenal rate owing to rising demand for chemicals in the domestic as well as the international market.
Although India exports chemicals all across the globe, the two top countries that have been the major destinations for chemical exports from India for past several years include U.S.A and China. In order to have a better picture of India’s exports performance in this sector, it is important to have a category or group-wise data. The next few sections provide a group-wise list of top 5 countries for India’s chemical exports for the year 2014-2015. The data is published by the CHEMEXCIL (Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics Export Promotion Council) set up by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry Government of India.
- Group: Inorganic, Organic and Agro-chemical Exports
- Rank 1 – U.S.A (USD 1071 million)
- Rank 2 – China (USD 694 million)
- Rank 3 – Indonesia (USD 514 million)
- Rank 4 – Malaysia (USD 421 million)
- Rank 5 – Brazil (USD 399 million)
- Group: Dyes & Dye Intermediate Exports
- Rank 1 – U.S.A (USD 217 million)
- Rank 2 – Turkey (USD 182 million)
- Rank 3 – China (USD 139 million)
- Rank 4 – Italy (USD 124 million)
- Rank 5 – Brazil (USD 117 million)
- Group: Cosmetics, Toiletries, and Essential Oils
- Rank 1 – UAE (USD 179 million)
- Rank 2 – U.S.A (USD 146 million)
- Rank 3 – Bangladesh (USD 86 million)
- Rank 4 – Saudi Arabia (USD 85 million)
- Rank 5 – Nepal (USD 73 million)
- Group: Specialty Chemicals, Lubricants and Castor Oil Exports
- Rank 1 – China (USD 216 million)
- Rank 2 – Netherlands (USD 126 million)
- Rank 3 – USA (USD 94 million)
- Rank 4 – France (USD 93 million)
- Rank 5 – Malaysia (USD 68 million)
India’s exports of chemicals is largely dependent on the performance of the organic chemicals category that include products such as acetic acid, acetic anhydride, acetone, phenol, methanol, formaldehyde, nitro benzene, citric acid, aniline, acetaldehyde, ethanolamine, and ethyl acetate. U.S.A, China, Germany and Pakistan are the top destinations for India’s organic chemical exports and continue to show a positive trend.
India’s chemical industry is growing continuously. Leading chemical companies in India are investing on expanding their operational capacity to meet ever growing chemical exports demand in India. Additionally, India is also attracting leading players from the international circuit to invest in India and become world’s top producer of chemicals.
