New Delhi, Feb 26 (KNN) Responding to the concerns raised by plastic manufacturers earlier that there is a shortage of carbon black in the country, due to which the plastic industry is suffering, Carbon Black Manufacturers Association (CBMA) has asserted that there is no shortage.

Talking to KNN, S K Bhatanagar, Secretary General, Carbon Black Manufaturers Asssociation (CBMA) said that the reports surfacing about the shortage based on comments made by rubber associations are not true.

“There is no shortage of Carbon Black in the country. The country in fact holds surplus capacities in production of Carbon Black, and is forced to undertake exports in view of significant imports of carbon black made by the users due to duty exemption schemes of the Govt. of India”, he said.

Informing further, Bhatnagar said that qs against annual requirement of 9 Lac MT of carbon black in the country, the user industry meets about 15% of its requirement through imports due to the duty exemptions.

This has resulted in exports of carbon black in almost similar volume by the carbon black manufacturers, he added.

Carbon black is produced in the country by SKI Carbon Black, Phillips Carbon Black, Himadri Specialty Chemicals, Continental Carbon, and others whose combined capacities are in the region of 10.58 lac MT, as against Indian demand (after excluding demand being met through imports) of 7.98 lac MT.

This demonstrates that Carbon Black Manufacturers could utilize only about 75% of their capacity. Under the circumstances, Carbon Black Manufacturers are left with no option but to export similar volume to optimize the utilization of its production capacities.

In fact, faced with lack of demand for the product in the Country, industry had to earlier struggle hard in creating demand for its product in the international market, where consumers look for long term (6-12 months) contract before considering imports.

Carbon Black industry can easily operate its plants in the region of 90-95% and meet the entire requirement of the Country provided the consumers make firm commitments.

The present shutdown of production by Continental Carbon due to Govt. orders is a temporary phenomenon and all efforts are being made by the company to meet the statutory obligations and recommence production.

The capacities available in the country even after excluding capacities with Continental Carbon are sufficient to meet the net demand for carbon black in the Country (after excluding the requirements being met through imports).

When the user industry has historically met its requirement of carbon black for export of their products through imports, there is no reason for the industry to believe that the same consumers would meet their requirement from the domestically produced carbon black in future. The industry can, however, certainly gear up even to meet this additional demand, should the consuming industry show its long-term interests.

The association further said that because of the availability of economically cheaper raw material and other inputs (carbon black in particular), the global tyre manufacturers are attracted to India and are adding to employment generation.

Carbon Black manufacturers have made big R & D investments, which has introduced new products and technologies over the last decade and expansion in production capacities could be made possible by imposing restrictions on imports of carbon black from surplus carbon black manufacturers in various countries who are trying to destabilize Indian industrial base by dumping their excess produce. (KNN/DA)