Lahore:Chemical industry provides key linkages in terms of product technology to several industries, such as automotive, engineering, consumer durables, food processing and petrochemicals.
Globally, the chemical industry is one of the largest and fast-growing sectors; a market of about USD 4 trillion with over 70,000 products.
Pak-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) Vice President Zafar Iqbal disclosed this in a think-tank session held here at PCJCCI Secretariat on Monday.
He mentioned that it is also recognized as the ‘mother of industries’ since it is vitally important for overall industrial development and self-reliance, being a major provider of raw material to almost all sectors.
Pakistan’s chemical industry, despite facing global competitive markets and lack of policy support, has grown progressively over the years, and is considered one of the robust industries that has seen many ups and downs in the past but survived the odds. In fact, the industry has done well, said Zafar Iqbal
, who is also CEO of Surfachem.
About 70 per cent of country’s overall industrial chemical output basic formulated and intermediates is consumed by the larger manufacturing sector.
Zafar Iqbal highlighted that currently, there are 28 listed companies engaged in production and marketing a large variety of chemicals, and employing thousands of workers. In addition, there are many units operating in the non-formal sector.
Industrial chemicals are produced by converting raw materials, such as fossil fuels, minerals and metals, and water, with most of the required input being locally available. Generally, the industry makes huge profits based on high demand of products and low competition, and the profits are increasing as its earnings have grown 24 percent and revenues 15 percent per year over the last three years. The exports in 2020-21 were nominal at USD 1.15 billion, mostly to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Vietnam, Turkiye, which constituted a mere 4.54 percent of the total natio
nal exports. Exports included plastic materials, pharmaceutical products and other industrial chemicals.
He stressed that the size of Pakistan’s chemical market could reach USD 20 billion in view of the domestic large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector’s average growth. Besides, there are promising prospects for increasing exports as well.
The situation justifies additional investment in the sector in a big way for it will help in import substitution and export expansion. It is thus imperative for the government to support the chemical industry through a proper policy framework and action plan to create an environment conducive to investment and capacity-building.