Page 52 - Plastics News March 2026
P. 52
BUSINESS NEWS
Global Shift, Local Lag conversion and processing base, despite its vast
agricultural residue and sugarcane resources.
The global bioplastics industry is clearly accel-
erating, though from a relatively small base. Ac- A Milestone, But Not a System
cording to provisional 2025 estimates released
by European Bioplastics (EUBP) in collaboration The commissioning of India’s first commercial-
with Germany-based nova-Institute, global bio- scale PLA plant by Balrampur Chini Mills in 2025
plastics production rose to 1.67 million tonnes in is an important milestone. However, a single
2025, up from 1.28 million tonnes in 2024. At the plant, while symbolically significant, addresses
same time, biobased plastics still represent only only a fraction of India’s potential demand. The
around 0.5 percent of the approximately 431 mil- deeper structural gaps in domestic production,
lion tonnes of plastics produced each year glob- processing capability, and cost competitiveness
ally, underlining both the progress made and the remain unresolved.
scale of opportunity ahead. According to IMARC Group, India’s biopoly-
mers market was valued at approximately USD
Installed global production capacity increased
to 2.31 million tonnes in 2025, from 2.02 million 652.2 million in 2024 and is projected to reach
tonnes in 2024, and is projected to reach 4.69 USD 2.09 billion by 2033. While this represents
million tonnes by 2030, based on EUBP’s latest, strong growth, it is occurring on a very small
more conservative outlook. Within this capacity base. For context, IMARC Group also estimates
mix, PLA accounts for 26.4 percent, followed by India’s overall plastics market at USD 44.0 bil-
polyamides (18.9 percent), PTT (15.6 percent), lion in 2024. As a result, bioplastics account for
bio-based polyethylene (12.7 percent), starch- less than 1.5 percent of India’s total plastics eco-
based compounds (6.1 percent), PBAT (4.9 per- system. This imbalance between overall plastics
cent), PHA (4.7 percent), and bio-based PET consumption and domestic biopolymer capacity
(3.0 percent). lies at the heart of India’s adoption challenge.
The Missing Middle: Three Structural Barriers
Importantly, utilisation is improving. EUBP data
shows that the global bioplastics industry oper- Three interlinked bottlenecks constrain India’s
ated at an average 72 percent capacity utilisa- biopolymer ecosystem.
tion in 2025, up sharply from 58 percent in 2024,
with Europe averaging 73 percent, indicating First, the cost barrier. Heavy reliance on im-
both rising demand and increasing process ma- ported bio-resins means biopolymers often cost
turity. two to three times more than conventional plas-
tics. This makes mass-market applications com-
Against this backdrop, India’s position is striking. mercially unviable and has forced several early
While countries such as the United States, China, adopters and entrepreneurs to scale back or
and Germany have spent the last three decades exit, not due to lack of demand, but because
building integrated domestic biopolymer eco- raw material economics do not work.
systems, India has yet to establish a comparable
52 PLASTICS NEWS March 2026
