Dyestuff Industry Past-Present-Future Subhash Bhargava (FSDC, UK) Managing Director Colorant Ltd.

What is Color ? Colour is a psychological interpretation of physical properties of a coloured object in physiological way.

Where Colors are seen ? Natural Colors Artificially produced colors Animal kingdom Plant kingdom Mineral kingdom Artificially produced colors Pigment/dyes Laser beams

In 1856

Classification of COLORANT Pigment Dyestuff Natural Vegetable Animal Mineral Synthetic Water soluble Reactive Acid Basic Direct Sulphur OBA Water Insoluble Disperse Di-Azo Vat

History of dyes industry 1869-70-A small group of German businessmen and chemists founded the Hoechst dyeworks In the same year, Friedrich Bayer & Co. was established in Barmen 1900s The German influence over world markets became so great that practically every country imported German dyes. Major consumers of dyestuffs imported from Germany in 1913, in tons United States 13,855 China 8,461 India 3,822 Japan 3,500

Major dyes player by 1930 were: Germany United States France Great Britain Switzerland Italy Japan

Dyes industry in India Before Independence Bengal lac dye was mainly exported to United Kingdom. Indigo was the most important colorant and Britain was its major importer.

First step The first organized dyestuff unit in India was Associated Research Laboratories (Now Arlab Ltd.) established in 1941 near Pune. The Atul Products was set up in 1947 near Valsad.

Dyes industry in India After Independence After independence Amar Dyechem and IDI Established in 1950s. In year 1954 A numbers of companies with foreign collaboration also came up.

After Independence Jay Enterprise ( Present day Jay chemicals Industries) started in 1967. Started by 30 MT capacity today its 30000 MT. At the same time IDI (Mafatlal Group) and Atul (lalbhai Group)  also started manufacturing reactive dyes in India. 

Rapid growth in late 70s to early 90s By initiative of Indian government and change over of policy plays big role to grow dyes industry in India. Late 1970’s saw a rapid growth primarily SSI sectors. The period of 1980’s and 1990’s also were the year for consolidation. During this period growth in polyester consumption led for Disperse dyes demand.

Growth in early 90s to 2000 The European  companies  turned to India for sourcing and job work. Some dyestuff giants entered in to India as production base and established units through accusation and JV companies. Ciba first acquired IDI then Metrochem Lonsen of China formed JV with KIRI dyes.

Dyes industry between 2000 to 2015 Stringent Environmental norms. Started working for compliance/ Certifications. In this period India established superiority in reactive dye and becomes a global player

Dyes industry between 2000 to 2015 Since last decade lot of changeovers and takeovers happened in the Dyestuff industries. SANDOZ sold to CLARIANT then sold to ARCHROMA. DYSTAR sold to KIRI and LONSEN.  

Dyes industry between 2000 to 2015 This period of time many Indian companies established their own Brand and Identity in global market. Indian dyes manufacturer fulfill requirement of domestic as well as global markets. Around 50 units in organized sector are accounting for 65% of the total production and 35% is contributed by over 1,000 MSME.

Current Scenario of Indian Dyestuff Industry India accounts for 12-13% of the global colorant industry. Nearly 2/3rd of total production is exported . India produced ~340,000 tones of dyes. Off this 50 to 60% were reactive dyes.

Production data (India) Financial Year Dyes Production (000'MT) 2008-09 168 2009-10 220 2010-12 245 2012-13 241 2013-14 240 2014-15 284 2015-16 340

Production Trend

Require Sustainability Sustainability in terms of Quality Price Ecofriendly ( Product and process)

Strength Large domestic market. Major raw material available within the country Quality human resources Technically superiority Established production facilities Democracy and demography.

Weakness Cost of Power and Finance. Infrastructure. No R & D initiative by industry. Don’t have backward and forward integration. Lacking in Brand building exercise. Scale of Production.

Opportunities Big Domestic market. China is getting expensive and started giving space to Indian dyestuff Industry. Global Brands and retailers have accepted quality of Indian Dyestuff industry but still long way to go.

Threats Environmental issue Still depending on China for some of crucial dye intermediates. Major production are in MSME which don’t have backward and forward integration No R & D initiative by industry.

Indian Dyestuff industry is heading for a brilliant future !