Indian PE growth on hold: Gail

India's polyethylene (PE) demand is expected to remain at around 8pc until 2021, before being spurred on by economic and infrastructural growth, according to state-controlled gas distributor and petrochemical producer Gail.

Indian demand for PE is estimated at 5mn t/yr, with existing domestic capacity around 5.5mn t/yr, said Gail's chief general manager for petrochemical marketing Anand Makwana at the Indian Petrochem conference being held in Mumbai over 14-15 November.

The PE growth rate fell marginally to around 8pc from 2018 from above 9pc in the previous five years. But demand is still expected to reach around 6.8mn t/yr by around 2021, according to Gail.

Linear low-density polyethylene will see the sharpest demand growth at 11pc, followed by high-density polyethylene at 7.8pc and linear density polyethylene at 6.4pc.