The Indian Chemical Industry is an integral component of  the Indian economy, contributing around 6.7 percent of the Indian GDP. It touches our lives in many different ways. The Chemical Industry is responsible for the agricultural and industrial development in India and has key linkages with several other downstream industries such as automotive, con sumer durables, engineering and food processing etc.
 
Globalization poses several challenges to the industry that has predominantly developed in a protected environment. The chemical industry is one of the largest manufacturing industries in all developed and emerging economies. There have been breath-taking changes in the chemical industry over the last 10 years or so, not only in Europe and in the US but also particularly in China, India, the rest of Asia and Brazil. With increasing competition worldwide, innovation remains crucial in finding new ways for the industry to satisfy its increasingly sophisticated, demanding and environmentally conscious consumers. Most of the growth in the past 25 years has been driven by Asia, which now owns almost half of the global chemical sales. The core of the chemical industry is shifting to Asia and by 2030 at least half of the top 10 chemical companies will be Asian or Middle Eastern.
 
We welcome the New Year with positive attitude and hope that the environment related issues are resolved. There has been lot of compliances in place not just in India but also all across and several big players including DOW, DuPont, BASF and  LANXESS give a lot of emphasis to sustainability. Few have also received awards and applauded for their efforts by keeping in mind the sustainability matrix.
 
Past two months we visited several companies in India, particularly in Gujarat, India. It has been a good ride so far and have seen companies making profits like never before and the stock prices of few publicly listed companies soured to almost double and few had a good percentage uplifts. The Specialty chemicals business is expected to reach USD 50 Billion by the end of 2018, driven by strong growth outlook for end use industries. Paints coatings and construction chemicals, colorants, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), personal care chemicals and flavors and fragrances are the specific segments that are expected to do well in the Indian market and possibly the world over.

Coming 2018, we are ready to help our member companies use and leverage their sales by our in house build Inventory Sharing Platform (ISP). The ISP is designed with a vision in mind, which wants to give businesses an edge by developing a community of manufacturers and their authorized distributors to proactively make their inventories available for each other using a virtual platform. The technology will play a very important role yet again in 2018 where several sales are expected to grow at an unprecedented level. No surprise that the young generation who has been playing with technology using tablets and mobiles phone will use it as their sales tool. As a promotional package beginning Jan 2018, we are also providing a free 2 month advertising in our magazine if you upload an excel sheet with all your products listed. You can get more details by signing up at our website dyeschemicalmarket.com/ISP
 
At this point in December, we just have one thing to say. "Goodbye 2017, Welcome 2018, Come one Come all". Use our Inventory Sharing Platform and be part of the global network of sales and purchase executives to increase your bottom line sales and achieve higher success this New Year! Happy New Year to all in advance! See you in 2018!

Rajiv Parikh