The Futuristic Perspectives: Indian Composites Industry

The Indian composites industry has grown significantly in the last two decades and keeps momentum to cater for the requirements from the various sectors. The composites industry in India continued its strong growth in 2010 and recorded nearly a 18.5 per cent growth during January-December 2010. The Rs 6,000 crore Indian composites market has been on an upswing over the last five years with a growth of 18.6 per cent, spurred by a strong demand in pipes & tanks, renewable energy (wind & solar energy), mass transit, automotives, trucks, and power sector. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a financial apex body, estimates that Indian GDP could record a growth of over 8.5 per cent in the current fiscal, up from 7.4 per cent in the 2009-10 which is fueling a new set of business for the composites industry.

The Indian composites industry is growing rapidly and is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22 per cent over the next four years. In the last five years, the growth rate in Indian composites market has been approximately 18 per cent annually. By the end of 2014, total Indian composites industry would be over $ 3 billion market. The per capita composites consumption is increased from 2004 to 2010 as compared to 0.1 kgs to 0.2 kgs. However, pipes & tanks, transportation, and wind energy sector represent the high growth rate while traction is towards construction, E&E, and aerospace/defense as well as the untapped and fragmented market makes high growth for the domestic and foreign investment.

Driving Forces

Despite the global economic recession, India has successfully coped with the haunting financial crisis of the last three years. There were many combinations of things that saved the Indian economy from dire consequences of the global downturn, like strong GDP numbers, excellent manufacturing activity, high FDI inflows, core sector growth, and others. In fact, global professional services firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), says that Indian economy will register the second fastest growth between now and 2050 and emerge as the second biggest economy in the world by the middle of this century. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) publication, World Investment Prospects Survey 2010–2012, India will be the second-most popular destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) globally over the next two years.

Major usage of composites in India can be found in sectors like pipes, anti-corrosion equipments, wind mill blade, SMC components, street light poles, telecom cables, electrical parts, and others. The composites industry in India is mainly driven by demand from the domestic consumers such as government, civic bodies, PSUs, and NGOs. Growth in India is highlighted by strong demand in the pipes & tanks, wind energy, transportation and construction application markets; that will provide excellent growth and profit opportunities to the market leaders. The oldest, well accepted, matured, and largest user of Indian composites industry has been the chemical industry due to the particular requirements, which could not be achieved by the traditional materials.



Indian Plastics & Polymers Market Outlook

The Indian plastic industry is characterized by the presence of a large number of players in end use applications consisting of over 26,000 small, mid-sized, and large manufactures or fabricators along with 16 major raw material producers. As plastics consumption grew exponentially in 2010 with the total consumption of 8.8 million metric ton (MMT). The current growth rate in Indian polymer industry is 14.6 per cent as compared to 2009 (12.4 per cent). The market is driven by the tremendous growth in packaging, building & construction, consumer goods, and automotive industry. The per capita plastics consumption reached 7.4 kg in 2010 from 4.6 kg in 2005.  Due to widely fragmented market, supplier power is low in Indian plastics industry because of the presence of many suppliers relative to the overall size of the industry segment that leads to high levels of competition tend to keep average profit margins at a modest single digit level except for those firms that specialized in custom products.

Commodity polymers, including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) enjoy 85 per cent market share of total Indian polymer market, thanks to their low cost, high performance, industries acceptability, and easy formability. Polyolefins (PP & PE) account for about 61 per cent of the total plastics consumption, followed by PVC at around 24 per cent and others by 15 per cent like engineering plastics, speciality plastics, and thermoset. In 2010, among the commodity polymers, low density polyethylene (LDPE) has shown the strongest growth rate of 18 per cent, followed by polyvinyl chloride (PVC) 17 per cent, polypropylene (PP) 15 per cent, and high density polyethylene (HDPE) & linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) both 14 per cent.

The highest growth rate for LDPE consumption can be attributed to the steadily increasing demand in packaging film, plasticluture, and plus favourable price differential with linear-low density polyethylene (LLDPE). While PVC healthy growth is mainly driven by demand from the building and construction including infrastructure, wire & cables, and footwear sectors. PVC is widely used for applications like pipes & fittings, windows & doors, wires & cables, films & sheets, profiles, footwear, medical tubing and pouches, and floor tiles. The demand is expected to grow during the next five years with growth in building & construction, and infrastructure expected to rise in coming years. Polypropylene (PP) import has been reduced from 2005 to 2010 due to increased domestic production capacity of PP while polyethylene (PE) import is still in the bombilation mood as well as Indian plastics converters are heavily depending on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) imports.

The Indian plastics market is characterized by regional players and also large number of local suppliers. There is also a sort of polarization between small, medium, and big sized companies as large organisation is in highly specialized end-use products while the smaller ones is in the commodity products. As much as 75 per cent of the market is in the unorganized sector and is highly competitive. There are some excellent polymer producers in India having sophisticated and modern automated plant. A good amount is also exported outside. However, there is absence of sufficient supply of speciality polymer and it is imported. Among the Indian polymer suppliers, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has largest market share of more than 70 per cent.

Conclusion
The consumption of plastics will increase about 2.5 fold from 2010 to 2016. The commodity polymers will have the largest share at 88 per cent while polyolefins will remain at about 61 per cent market share of total Indian plastics consumption. In India, extrusion-based methods account for 62 per cent of the total amount of plastics processed, followed by the injection molding at 27 per cent. For the plastics business perspective Gujarat and Maharashtra appear attractive based on availability of raw materials, conducive environment, and policy support for investments.

For more info you can conatct me @ vivepatel@gmail.com

IITB Eureka’s People’s Choice Award 2010-11, in association with YourStory

Dear All,

I am pleased to inform you that the voting for people's choice award for the IITB Eureka business plan has begun on Yourstory http://bit.ly/fNZGRF where you will find my business plan with the name of Vivek Patel at position 2. You directly click at http://yourstory.in/latest-events/5064-iitb-eurekas-peoples-choice-award-2010-11-in-association-with-yourstory and vote for me.
 

Try to put many vote to make my idea win.

Regards,
Vivek Patel

Majon.com Free Website Evaluation for http://polymercompositeschemicals.blogspot.com

Majon.com Free Website Evaluation for http://polymercompositeschemicals.blogspot.com

Upcoming Events : Nanotechnology 2011

The Second Conference on Advances in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics and Asian-Pacific International Symposium on Lab on Chip, Singapore 05 - 7 January, 2011

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Recent Advances in Modern Communication Systems and Nanotechnology (NCMCN 2011), Jaipur, India, 06-08 January, 2011

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3rd Annual Conference of the Innovation Alliance Carbon Nanotubes, Ettlingen, Germany, 25-27th January, 2011

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International Conference on Ion-beam Induced Nanopatterning of Materials (IINM-2011), Bhubaneswar, India, 06 - 10 February, 2011

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Fifth International Conference on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology (AMN-5), Wellington, New Zealand, 07 - 11 February, 2011

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Nano tech 2011, Tokyo, Japan, 16 - 18 February, 2011

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Intelligent Systems, Sustainable, New and Renewable Energy Technology & Nanotechnology (IISN-2011), Institute of Science & Technology, Klawad, Yamunagar Haryana, India, 18 – 20 February,2011

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Nanoscience Conference 2011, Sharm el Sheikhk, Egypt, 19 - 22 February, 2011

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Nanobiomedica for the Nanobiotechnology Sector, World Trade Center, Mexico City, Mexico, 23 – 25 February, 2011

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Nanotech Insight 2011, Cairo, Egypt, 27 February- 02 March, 2011

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Commercialising Nanotubes 2011 for business development & business summit, Düsseldorf, Germany , 8-10 March 2011

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Advanced Technologies for an Ageing Population for Nanomedicine, Glasgow, UK , 23 - 24 March, 2011

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NanoManufacturing Conference & Exhibits, Oakbrook Ter IL, USA , 05-06 April, 2011

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INRS Occupational Health Research Conference 2011: Risks associated to Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials, Nancy, France, 5 – 7 April, 2011

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ImagineNano, Bilbao, Spain, 11 – 14 April, 2011

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Graphene 2011, Bilbao, Spain, 11 – 14 April, 2011

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US-EU-Africa-Asia-Pacific and Caribbean Nanotechnology Initiative (USEACANI) Workshop for Sciences & Technology and Business Summit, New York, USA, 24 – 28 April, 2011

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Graphene Week 2011: Fundamental Science of Graphene and Applications of Graphene-Based Devices, Obergurgl, Austria, 24 – 29 April, 2011

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4th Workshop on Nanotube Optics and Nanospectroscopy (WONTON '11), Bordeaux, France, 29 May to 1 June, 2011

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EuroNanoForum 2011, Budapest,30 May to 1 June 2011

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VIENNANO '11, Vienna, Austria, 7-9 June 2011

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NanoMaterials 2011, London (UK), 7-9 June 2011

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Nanotech China 2011, Shanghai, PR China, 7-9 June, 2011

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Nanotech Conference & Expo 2011, Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA

13-16 June, 2011

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NanoFormulation2011, Singapore, 26th June - 1st July, 2011

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Nineteenth Annual International Conference on Composites/Nano Engineering (ICCE-19), Shanghai (PR China), 24-30 July, 2011

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Frontiers of Quantum and Mesoscopic Thermodynamics, Prague, Czech Republic, 25-30 July, 2011

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2nd International Conference on Nanotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications Ottawa, Canada, 27-29 July, 2011

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Nanoforum 2011, Torino, Italy, 14-15 Sep, 2011

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BIT's 1st Annual World Congress of Nano-S&T Dalian, PR China, 23-26 Oct, 2011

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Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy - EU-India workshop and school, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India,Nov 01 - 04, 2011

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Nanotech India 2011, Kerala, India, 19th - 21st November, 2011

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ICERP-JEC Innovation Awards Program

The deadline is just knocking so that for more info please click on the link :

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Prepregs: Oppourtunites Ahead

Introduction

Prepregs are ready to use material to produce composite parts wherein matrix resin is impregnated into the reinforcing fibre along with the curing agent and additives; impregnated reinforcements mainly make three forms : unidirectional tape (0o orientation), woven fabrics, and roving.Prepregs are classified as thermoset prepregs and thermoplastic prepregs,but thermosets are the most prevalent,with the epoxy, phenolic, Vinyl ester,bismaleimide, and cynate ester resins while high-performance thermoplastics such as polyether ether ketone (PEEK) and polysulfone (PS) are also used to produce prepregs. Further it is classified by aerial weight as grammes per square metre (g/m2) or ounces per square yard (oz/yd2). The materials are also grouped by c u r e temper a t u r e : room temperature, 250°C and 350° C. Prepregs generally comes in a rolled and flat sheet form in a thickness range of 0.127 mm (0.005”) to 0.50 mm (0.02”) from var ious combinat ions of reinforcement fibres and matrices in a partially cured (B-stage) form. This difference is based on type of resins used. Reinforcements in prepreg can be glass, graphite, carbon, and aramid, and are used in filament or woven fabric form in either of these prepregs. 

Prepregs are used in a wide range of applications such as aerospace, defense and military, railway, marine, wind energy, printed circuit boards, sporting good items, medical components and industrial products. The advantages of prepreg materials over metals and conventional materials are higher specific strength, higher specific stiffness, longer shelf life, low requirements of refrigeration for storage, excellent corrosion resistance, lower fabrication cost and faster production  rate . The major disadvantage of prepregs material is initial higher cost and moderate volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission. The Products made with prepreg materials cure at lower temperatures without the need for autoclave techniques and autoclave, layup, vacuum bag, and pressure bag processing techniques are used to consolidate and cure prepreg materials after placement in a tool or onto a mandrel which leads to higher fiber volume fraction. The choice of processing method is determined by the cost, quality and type of component being manufactured.Vacuum bag processing is suited to components with thin sections and large sandwich structures while autoclave processing is used for the manufacture of superior quality structural components containing high fibre volume and low void contents.

Applications

The prepregs are used in multiple applications but the majority of uses come from aerospace (63%), industrial market (25%), sporting goods & leisure (12%). The phenolic prepreg is used for aerospace, marine and mass transit interior applications while epoxy is predominantly used in printed circuit board industry where flame/ smoke/ toxicity (FST) performance required. Epoxy and polyester prepregs are suitable for radome and antenna applications due to excellent dielectric performance. Carbon, epoxy, phenolic, BMI, PEEK, PS, and cynate ester prepregs are used for the aerospace's primary structures such as empennage, vertical tail, radome, antenna, horizontal stabilizer, fuselage including aft, middle and centre, skins, stringers, stiffeners, spars for the main wings and wing boxes, wing tips, cargo and access doors. Prepregs provide good structural properties, excellent dimensional stability, low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), net shape molding, better fatigue performance than most metals, with lower weight and no need for fiberglass galvanic corrosion barrier plies. Cytec and Hexcel are the largest carbon prepreg suppliers to the aerospace industry as carbon prepreg is being used for the parts fabrication of Boeing 787 Dreamliner. In FY 2009, Hexcel is awarded a contract worth about US$4 billion through 2025 to supply primary structure prepreg for the Airbus A350 XWB aircraft. Carbon fiber prepreg is being used in sporting goods & leisure items such as motorcycle wheels, rim, integral spokes and structural components which represent a typical weight saving of 40 to 50 percent over their conventional aluminium counterparts, with no decrease in strength as well as stimulates lighter bike, reduce fatigue, and lower moment of inertia. Prepregs application in wind energy sector is started foothold due to production of longer rotor blades that demand lighter weight. For thick laminate sections in the production of spar caps of wind turbine blades, prepreg is used. The other use of prepreg is in composite tooling for the construction of lightweight tools for fabrication of smaller and midsized components due to theirs heavy aerial weight properties, excellent dimensional stability and upto 1000 cycle tool production. Norplex-Micarta manufactures ballistic prepreg for ballistic applications to achieve five levels of bullet resistance range from ¼ to 1-3/16 inches (6.35-31.2 mm). The use of prepregs is also growing for automotive applications for body parts and interior components.
Market Analysis
Global prepregs industry has been growing at a rate of around 12% annual average growth rate (AAGR) since 2004 while robust demand has fueled prepreggers to increase production capacity. The leading prepregs suppliers are Hexcel, Advanced Composites Group (ACG), Toray, Cytec, Gurit, and TenCate Advanced Composites, among them Hexcel, Toray, and Gurit are building new capacity to meet the increased demand. The key drivers for the growth trend are aerospace, military and defense, wind energy, ocean, automotive, and emerging industrial end use applications. In fact, 50% composite material is used in the production of the Boeing 787 primary structure by weight primarily made of prepreg that tells itself growth story. In the prepreg industry, Hexcel has largest market share just before Cytec whereas Toray is preceded by Gurit. The top 3 suppliers are having 70% market share of the total prepreg market. The wind energy market fuels prepregs growth as in FY 2009 prepreg market grew in double digits for wind energy.Gurit has largest market share in the wind energy prepreg while in the aerospace market, Hexcel retains number one podium. Toray is the number one supplier of prepreg to the sporting goods and industrial market and sells significant amounts of prepregs to various sub sectors such as golf shafts, bicycles, fishing rods, and rollers. ACG has a limited product range mainly suitable for the industrial market. Examples of such niche markets are race cars, tooling prepreg, and automotive. ACG dominates in these three markets and captures maximum market share in these markets.

Conclusions
The prepregs demand will higher peak due to strong demand continuing from aerospace, defense & military and wind energy sector. The critical success factor for prepreg producers will application specific products, and customer focused solutions. Over the next decade prepregs application will secure a good position in alternative energy, high performance automobiles, construction and infrastructure end use applications.

Newsletter

All my valued readers as you may be aware that this blog is getting tremendous response across the globe as viewing by industrial and institutional honcho. It gives me great pleasure to announce that i am going to start a weekly newsletter on polymers, chemicals, composites and life sciences domain to catering techno-commercial and R&D news.

You can subscribe this newsletter by sending a request at vivepatel@gmail.com. I am eagerly waiting for your response.

Till than happy reading---------------

India’s C5 Tackifier Adhesive Market: Opportunity Analysis

C5 is the aliphatic hydrocarbon resins which are mainly used in hot melt adhesives having the character of tackifying with the substrates and can be roughly divided by raw material into mixed variety, aliphatic variety, dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) variety, copolymerized variety and hydrogenation-modified variety. These resins are ideal for tackifying SIS and SEBS block copolymers.

C5 tackifier based hot melt adhesives are amongst the premier emergent adhesives in the industry. The usage of hot melt adhesives continues to grow thanks to their exclusive properties that include adhesion to a broad assortment of surfaces, effortless use, aging features, and strength, among others. Hot melt adhesives are distinctively superior in terms of speed and cost efficiencies, and at par with water-based alternatives in terms of adhesion and VOCs emissions. However, escalating raw material prices represent a daunting challenge for hot melt adhesive market participants.

Hot melt adhesive refers to all adhesives which are essentially solvent less solid materials at ambient temperature and must be applied to the bonding surface at elevated temperatures to permit adequate flow. It is consisting of both non-pressure sensitive adhesives as well as pressure sensitive adhesives.

Primary functions and Selection Parameters

C5’s hot melt adhesives can be supplied in various physical forms to meet specific logistic requirements:

• Solid

• Molten

• Liquid

Primary functions

• Compatible with Adhesive Polymer-- Not a Filler

• Lowers Average Molecular Weight-- Viscosity Adjustment

• Raises the Blended Tg-- Not a Plasticizer, Improves adhesion

Desirable Attributes

• Lower Color

• Increased Stability

• Tuned Polarizability

• Increased Compositional Variation

Tackifier selection depends primarily on softening point, composition, molecular weight and molecular weight distribution. The tackifier can also be used to make other adhesive additives compatible.

Applications

• Pressure-sensitive

• Non-pressure-sensitive

Targeted & Potential Markets

• Automotive - Such as carpet and sound-dampening insulation, headliner attachment and application of decorative decals.

• Building & Construction - As sealants, mastics, roofing membranes, plastic composites, concrete modifiers and industrial cleaners.

• Nonwovens - Hygiene industry almost exclusively for the manufacture of nonwoven products including baby diapers, adult incontinence products, and feminine care personal hygiene products.

• Packaging - Applications such as case & carton closure, flexible packaging, envelopes, and corrugated converting.

Market Potential in India

India, perhaps, holds the maximum potential for growth in hot melt adhesives market globally given its 4% share of the APAC hot melt adhesives market, compared to its neighbor, China, with over 18.8 % of the APAC market. The Hot melt adhesive industry in India is growing rapidly and is projected to grow at a rate of 18.7% in the next 4 years. In the last 5 years, the growth rate in Indian hot melt adhesives market has been approximately 16.4% annually. 

In Indian hot melt adhesives industry, non-pressure sensitive adhesive represents high growth rate while traction is towards nonwovens and automotive applications. Indian demand for hot melt adhesive is booming, producers may want to also concentrate on business in India. The strongest demand for adhesives in India is for water-borne products. The demand is high but supply is low. India cumulative FDI is approx US $ 100 billion but adhesives related investment is less than 1%, lower than china but with potential to compete.

The C5 petroleum resin production is mainly concentrated in countries with advanced petroleum and chemical industries such as the United States, Japan, Germany, Russia, France, Britain and Holland. The total capacity of C5 petroleum resins in the world is around 1100,000 metric ton per annum and the capacity in the United States and Japan accounts respectively for around 59% and 22% of the total global market. Worldwide the C5’s hot melt adhesive market has annual growth rate 4% but in India it is growing with double digit growth rate (18.7%) in spite of the economic recession which tremendously affected adhesive markets in North America, Japan and Western Europe. Contributing to this increase was the unprecedented growth of the emerging markets in the rest of Asia and India. 

Historically, the adhesive industry was dominated by a few industrialized countries. Now, a significant portion of new demand is being generated by emerging countries such as China. The next major growth country could be India. In India C5’s hot melt adhesives industry is growing somewhat faster (double digit growth rate) than GDP due to developing industry and at same time innovation in adhesive formulations and polymer and resin technologies results in new applications for hot melt adhesives. There is a huge gap between demand and supply of the hot melt adhesives which leads to tightening supply and growing demand push price escalation up the tackifier chain.

Market fragmentation continues as new adhesive demand is generated from a supply and demand standpoint. The demand growth is also supported by the emergence of new market applications that result from changing substrates and evolving assembly processes. On the supply side, despite ongoing industry consolidation and M&A activities at the level of the multinational companies, new small- and medium-sized companies are beginning to serve targeted market niches and/or specialize in a specific state-of-the-art technology.

Driving factors for the growth of Indian C5’s hot melt adhesive market 

• Good GDP growth rate

• Burgeoning manufacturing sector

• Growing urban infrastructure need

• Increasing diapers market penetration

• Sectoral boom in, automotive industry, greater usage in oil and gas segments

• With the slow down of North American and European market, global players are increasingly investing in the Indian industrial market

Challenges 

• High raw material costs

• High energy costs

• Quality compatibility

Competitor (Supplier base to India): They do not have manufacturing base in India 

• Eastman

• ExxonMobil Chemical

• Cray Velley

• H.B. Fuller Company (US)

• Henkel

• Jowat Corporation (US)

• Some Chinese suppliers

Opportunity for Composite Materials in India: Sheet Molding Compound (SMC) Industry

www.frptoday.in/sep%20vivek%20patel.pdf