We wrote in 2020 that about 14 biaxial oriented stretch film lines would be installed in India and South Asia in the three to four years from 2021 to 2024. More than half of these BOPP and BOPET lines are generally 8.5 to 10.5 meters wide and have already been installed at the plants of companies such as Nahar Polyfilms, Cosmos, Surya, Vacmet, Chiripal, SRF, GLS, and Ester.
Our latest update reveals that while the installations of the biaxial lines ordered in 2020-21 by Indian film producers and converters continue, another dozen to fourteen lines, mostly from Bruckner and some from Dornier, are scheduled for installation in 2023, 2024, and 2025. These include film lines ordered by Jindal Polymers, Max Films, SRF, Dhanteri, Shima, Belasa, Sparsh, and Uflex. There are repeat orders from Cosmos, GLS, and Surya as well.
In addition to the wide stretch films under installation and on order, a significant number of cast polypropylene (CPP) are also on order. While the widths of these generally range from 2.4 to 6.5 meters, most of the dozen lines on order from Indian producers are in the narrower 2.5 to 3.3-meter wide range. The suppliers of these include Colines, Reifenhauser, SML and W&H.
As far as blown film lines that are mostly installed by flexible packaging converters in their own plants, the annual installation of three-layers and above lines are about 90 to 95. Eighty to eighty-five of these are manufactured in India by companies such as Rajoo Engineers, Kabra-Kolsite, and Shubham. About ten blown film lines each year and in some years, as many as a dozen, are imported from Hosokawa-Alpine, Macchi, Reifenhauser and W&H. W&H generally sells and installs 70% of the imported blown film lines each year.
One can say that the flexible packaging industry in India and South Asia (several lines of various sizes are under installation or in the pipeline to Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka as well) is extremely buoyant. There is a measure of foreign investment taking place as well, with an investment in end-March 2022 of Rs 2,000 crore (approximately US$ 250 million) for a 25% stake in Jindal Polymers packaging film business from Canada-based Brookfield. In February 2022, Toppan increased its stake in Max Film from 49% to 90%.
Indian global players such as Uflex continue to expand and invest both within the country and around the world. Gujarat-based SML as well declared earlier this year its plan to set up a greenfield packaging film production plant at an yet undisclosed location in Europe.
