In 2021, overall bilateral trade in goods and services between India and USA reached a record US$ 157 billion. At the same time, there remains a huge scope for expanding the trade multifold including in the area of chemicals and petrochemicals.

In this context, the ‘India–US Chemicals & Petrochemicals Forum’ on the sidelines of ‘India Chem 2022’, the 12th Biennial International Exhibition and Conference in New Delhi on November 02, 2022 provided a platform to understand the investment potential to support the ‘Make in India’ initiative, scope of collaboration and business expansion of US companies in India, recent progress in R& D in the US, technology transfer, and improvement in bilateral trade.  

“India and the US share a strong strategic partnership based on shared democratic values, stability and economic prosperity. That bilateral trade has gone above US$ 150 billion and what we see is the genuine interest of the American companies to invest in India as they diversify from China. The conversation is happening on the securing supply chains. Now we require the policy push for technology adoption and innovation. The time is now as the structural reforms including the PLI scheme have been well received. Whatever we can do to support is an opportunity for us,” said Nivedita Mehra, Managing Director, India, USISPF.

“We are working with major Indian energy players to help them adopt gas for their industries. We also have future ready lubricants so that India is ready for future mobility goals.  Besides, we have high performance chemical products which we bring to India to help the Indian companies to adopt latest technologies and also Make in India. We have brought investment into R&D at our Technology Centre in Bengaluru. In terms of green initiatives, it has to be technology based. Having put plastic out of daily use doesn’t eliminate it from the environment. We have to look at the entire product life cycle of the product from the climate change perspective. We plan to bring a few technologies to Asia Pacific to reduce the overall plastic usage. For that we need the infrastructure for plastic waste management and enough raw material for advanced recycling.

What we are expecting is the streamlining of regulations so that the capital flows in,” said Rakesh Mehta, Director of ExxonMobil Chemicals in India. “In a US$ 5 trillion chemical economy that is providing jobs to 50 million people, if there is a bright spot, it is India. At the same time, energy transition in India would not be complete until and unless it touches the chemical industry as it touches all the aspects of our daily lives. So if India is looking truly at transition, it has to take the chemical industry along. The industry has to look at the new model as typically the focus is on the cracker plants which usually take US$ 4-5 billion investment. Same investment you can put in the 40-50 plants with new technologies enabling energy decarbonization, defossilization, and also net zero targets. It’s the right time for the industry to come up with a roadmap that includes defossilization of the feedstock. Why do we need the carbon under the ground when we can use the waste carbon above? We have started working with our partners in India and will work on many key technologies,” said Preeti Jain, Director, Business Development and Government Relations, LanzaTech.

“We have been in India since the last four decades and continue to be a part of the India growth story. We are bringing a lot of products to India which were manufactured outside. Technology is the need of the hour for the chemical industry. The way the chemical industry is evolving, there are four areas that are getting attention including productivity, safety, emissions and technology. There is a big push to these areas post covid as compared to earlier when the focus was more on refining and petrochemicals. The important thing is we must decide whether to use the already available global technologies or re-invent the wheel and sometimes the thought process is that Make in India means only Indian companies. That’s not true as the companies like us manufacture 70% of the products for the country locally. India US trade has come a long way and there has been a phenomenal change,” said Anil Bhatia, Vice President & Managing Director–India, Emerson.

“We are committed to bringing sustainable technologies to Indian farmers as a solution driven company. We have tied up with UPL to manufacture the molecules that we used to import earlier. Our global team is visiting next month to explore new partnerships. We are already deploying the cutting edge technologies for Indian farmers. What we expect is better regulatory access. The timeline of 4-5 years of regulatory approvals prevents us from bringing better technologies and manufacturing them here in India. Helping us to provide better access to our technology and safer molecules to farmers in India by way of facilitating the regulatory environment. Better management of IPR protection is expected as we have seen many getting registrations on molecules that are our patented products. That will give confidence to many players looking at investing in India,” said Raju Kapoor, Director-Industry & Public Affairs, FMC India.

“The chemical sector in itself brings a huge set of excitement whether the FDI or the trade which has crossed US$ 7 billion. For this great partnership to continue evolving, we need to think about the role of sustainability, technology and larger ease of doing business and regulatory streamlining so that the US companies that are looking at India would feel confident to do the business,” said Mohammad Athar, Partner, PwC who moderated the session.