Even as the Union Government is banning Chinese apps, Chinese firms manufacturing Titanium Dioxide are getting more than ₹5,000 crore from India every year by exporting the shiny bright white powder used in a range of products including paints as a pigment for its high covering power and durability.
Indian manufacturers of Titanium Dioxide, who are producing the chemical with world-class quality, are seeking a ban on this import or slapping of higher import duty while allowing domestic manufacturers to increase their production capacity.
According to Ponsehar, president, Indian Titanium Dioxide Manufacturers’ Association, there were only six units in the country manufacturing Titanium Dioxide – two each in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and one each in West Bengal and Gujarat even as Indian Rare Earths Limited, a Government of India undertaking, is trying to set-up its unit in Odisha.
While annual demand for Titanium Dioxide, being used in paints, paper, textile, plastic products, cosmetics, printing ink etc., in India is 3.50 lakh tonnes, these six units collectively have annual production capacity of only 50,000 tonnes, leaving the buyers in the lurch. Consequently, the struggling Indian industries have been forced to import a minimum of 3 lakh tonnes of Titanium Dioxide every year from China for which the buyers have to pay huge amounts of foreign exchange even as one tonne costs around ₹2.25 lakh.
“The Chinese firms, with an eye on crushing the Indian manufacturers of Titanium Dioxide, dump their product over and above 3 lakh tonnes that seriously affects the domestic producers,” says Mr. Ponsehar.
The manufacturers advocate a multi-pronged strategy to ensure the growth of domestic industrial units manufacturing Titanium Dioxide while saving huge volumes of foreign exchange. While minimizing the Titanium Dioxide from China by slapping hefty import duty up to 40%, the Union Government should allow the domestic suppliers to increase their production.
They also appealed to the Centre that the ban slapped on mining of ilmenite, the major raw material for Titanium Dioxide, should be revoked to increase production to meet domestic demand.
“Even as mining of beach minerals and rare earths are allowed in a few States including Gujarat, the Centre should instruct the Tamil Nadu Government to allow mining of beach mineral and rare earths, which will incredibly boost the production of Titanium Dioxide to help the domestic industries under the Prime Minister’s ‘Make In India’ programme. More importantly, it will save precious foreign exchange worth over ₹5,000 crore every year for the country,” says S. Sugumar, chairman of Beach Minerals Company, who has established a state-of-the-art Titanium Dioxide manufacturing unit on Thoothukudi outskirts with German know-how.
“We are very particular in giving the finest Titanium Dioxide to domestic and international buyers. Hence, we need to have the finest technology for manufacturing the product of matchless quality,” says Mr. Sugumar, exporter of beach minerals.
The present scenario prevailing in the country only helps China which dumps Titanium Dioxide to strangulate the domestic industries. Hence Mr. Ponsehar suggests that the Union Government that banned the Chinese apps, should slap 40% import duty on the Titanium Dioxide being imported from China to save the domestic manufacturers.