Indian automotive industry consumes a total of 450 KT of plastics valued at US$800 mln

The automotive industry is one of the largest industries in India and is a key driver for growth in the economy. Owing to its deep forward and backward linkages with other sectors in the economy, the automotive industry has a strong multiplier effect on the economy. India is emerging as a source of high value and advanced quality engineering products and services for multinational companies. 2011-12 has been a historic year in the automobile industry in India as the car sales crossed the 2 mln unit (20 lakh) mark. In 2011-12, total car sales stood at over 20.16 lakh units as against 19.72 lakh units in 2010-11. In March, 2012, car sales rose by 19.66% to 2.29 lakh units from 1.92 lakh units in March, 2011. In 2010-11, carmakers had registered a 29% growth while it stood at 25% cent in 2009-10. Today is an exciting time to be a part of the automobile industry, even though the demands on the business have never been greater. Customer expectations of vehicle quality, reliability, safety, and utility are at an all-time high. With these developments, the industry is on the verge of major change, in both its products and business structure. Various product innovations have been introduced lately in the industry towards matching the customer expectations and thereby bringing new revolution in the automobile industry. Today India has 22 car producers and 146 models with over 1000 variants being offered to Indian consumer’s ranging from a family economy car to high end luxury cars. Incidentally India has surpassed USA in car production. Plastics play a major role in improving the fuel efficiency and today average plastics penetration in a passenger vehicle in India is 70 kgs which translates to 450 KT of total Plastics consumption valued at US$ 800 million. Going by the trend future cars will be lighter, safer, fuel efficient and cost effective. To attain the goal, automotive design engineers are looking for high performance materials which give them greater flexibility in terms of designing and styling. This clearly shows a huge opportunity in India for Plastic consumption in Automobiles. This year’s Automotive Plastics Conference highlights include keynote address by Mr. Adil Zainulbhai - Managing Director, McKinsey India, Mr. Sudhir Rao- Managing Director, SKODA and Mr. S Maitra- Managing Executive Director, Maruti Udyog Ltd. Other sessions would feature interesting topics like Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Mobility and the Role of Plastic Industry and OEM's Requirements for Polymeric Automotive Parts, Megatrends and Challenges in Automotive Plastics -Vendors Development Strategy to meet O&M's Expectation. The second Automotive Plastics Conference organized by CPMA / Elite Business Services Private Limited is scheduled to be held on 1st Nov 2012 at Hotel Trident, Nariman Point, in Mumbai.