By Dominick Rodrigues
Mumbai : The Plastics Export Promotion Council (PLEXCONCIL) — the apex nodal trade body of Indian plastics exporters — participated in Arab Plast 2021, the 15th edition of the international trade show for plastics, petrochemicals, packaging and rubber industry at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 15-18 November 2021.
PLEXCONCIL — as the Indian Associate of Arab Plast –had the largest country pavilion comprising 35 exhibitors, and drew numerous quality visitors and global buyers, with the result that the PLEXCONCIL members have committed to have a bigger participation at the next edition in 2022.
The Arab Plast exhibition featured over 200 leading international companies in the plastics and petrochemical sector from 30 countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Italy, India, Austria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Describing the “The United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the third most important destination for India due to close proximity to GCC, Arvind Goenka, Chairman, PLEXCONCIL, said this market would remain an important market for India’s plastic exporters.
“while our internal assessment shows that Indian plastics’ exports to the UAE can increase additionally by US$ 2.5 billion, India and the UAE are negotiating the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which could be significant and wide-reaching step in promoting trade and investment between the two countries,” he said.
The UAE is an important source of plastic raw material for India, which is soon to sign its FTA with the UAE– one of its top trading partners — and providing tariff concessions will have a reciprocal effect by not only boost exports but duty concessions on imported goods as well. T
he UAE is a trading hub facilitator between Indian and African countries with a sizeable market share. With the FTA in place, exports from India will get boosted allowing growth of trade. Dubai port plays a key role in facilitating smooth transport of Indian goods to the region.
Within plastics, the trade is in favour of the UAE with exports of US$ 778.3 million to India and a trade surplus of US$ 351.4 million. This means that India’s plastics exports to the United Arab Emirates were at US$ 426.9 million. India’s exports to Europe and the USA were valued at US$ 2.31 billion and US$ 1.49 billion.
Sribash Dasmohapatra, Executive Director, PLEXCONCIL, stated that the UAE’s annual plastics imports are valued at around US$ 7 billion. India’s plastic exports to the UAE primarily comprise plastic raw materials (25.7%); Plastic sheets and films (12.1%); packaging items of plastic (9%) and woven sacks/ FIBCs (6.6%). Product categories within value added plastics, which have immense export potential for export to the UAE from India include medical disposables, plastic sheets and films, packaging items, houseware, travel ware, pipes, tubes and fittings thereof; masterbatches, self-adhesive sheets and films; all types of optical items; shoppers, closures, lids, etc.
The UAE’s plastics imports are largely catered to by China (35.4%) and Saudi Arabia (15.9%). India also has an extremely good standing in some of the plastic product imports by the UAE – for example woven sacks/ FIBCs – market share of 65.1% (Rank 1); decorative laminates – market share of 58% (Rank 1); Ropes, twines and cordage – market share of 42.5% (Rank 1); leather cloth – market share of 21.5% (Rank 2); Plastic sheets and films-market share of 12.4% (Rank 2).
