The $31 billion opportunity

Summary: India’s chemical industry sits on a $31 billion opportunity as global supply chains realign. While utilisation and exports are strong, heavy import dependence persists. The sector’s future now hinges not on policy ambition but on execution — turning potential into global competitiveness. In our last month’s edition, we argued that the chemical sector is once again entering an interesting phase. Valuations have cooled, client inventories are normalising and policy attention is back. But to truly grasp the size of the opportunity and its fragility, one must zoom out. The real story of Indian chemicals is not in quarterly earnings or global price charts; it lies in the long arc of data quietly published each year by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals (DCPC), a treasure trove hiding in plain sight. Examine seven years of that data from FY17 to FY24 and a picture emerges of a sector that is strong, brimming with untapped promise but also constrained. The headline numbers reveal an industry with high utilisation, resilient exports and a stubborn import dependence that refuses to fade. The takeaway is simple yet sobering: India’s chemical potential is massive, but it will only materialise if execution matches ambition. The opportunity hiding in plain sight India’s chemical industry, including petrochemicals, is among the fastest-growing segments of manufacturing, contributing over 7 per cent to GDP and employing more than a million people. Yet its share in the global chemical trade remains stuck at a modest 3–3.5 per cent. Why does that matter? Because even a two-percentage-point gain in global share translates into an incremental opportunity of $100–150 billion annually. Government’s own estimates, cited

This article was originally published on November 01, 2025.