San-i-pak - Articles & Issues

U.S. suppliers of environmental products and services have found India to be a receptive and profitable market in recent years. As India globalizes its economy and struggles to cope with environmental concerns exacerbated by its high population growth and urbanization, U.S. solution ¡V providers are discovering increasing opportunities.

In 1999, India¡¦s environmental technologies market was estimated at approximately $4.9 billion (based on market potential calculations and estimations, not actual revenues). The largest segments of this market are energy efficiency and renewable energy ($2.5 billion), water and wastewater treatment ($1.2 billion), and air pollution control ($408.0 million). The market grew at an average annual rate of 10 ¡V 15 percent in the 1990¡¦s. However, the Southeast Asian financial crisis and a slowdown in India¡¦s industrial production are blamed for a drop in environmental market growth to around 10 percent in more recent years. Even in the face of the slowdown, the market for environmental technologies has consistently maintained a growth rate approximately twice that of the country¡¦s GDP.

Now, an improving regulatory structure, activism in the Indian judiciary, improved public environmental education, and rising funding (both domestic and international) for environmental projects are bolstering market growth. In the regulatory arena, key market-driving developments include:

Clean Energy ¡V New ¡§coal beneficiation¡¨ rules from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) are reinforcing demand for clean coal technologies;

Air Pollution ¡V More stringent vehicular emissions standards are being enforced in India as of this spring. These standards are set to be stiffened from now through 2005 until they match Euro I and Euro II levels;

Hazardous Waste ¡V Revised biomedical waste-management rules and increasing private-sector investment in health care are boosting demand in this sector.

From the Government of India, one positive market signal is that national and state-level government environmental spending has been on the increase in India, rising nearly 20 percent over the past five years. Another is that tariffs on environmental goods have been targeted for reductions. Customs duties on most pollution-control equipment, for example, have been reduced to 25 percent. Additionally, in an attempt to speed conversion to natural gas vehicles, the government of India has reduced duties to 5 percent on a number of specific items recognized as being required for that conversion.

More recently, the California Environmental Business Council (CEBC), the Environmental Technologies Export Program of the California Trade and Commerce Agency, and the Department of Commerce¡¦s Office of Environmental Technologies Industries (ETI), collaborated on an energy and environmental mission to India from February 13 ¡V 19, 2001. The mission was led by Jim Miwa of the Environmental Technologies Export Program of the California Trade and Commerce Agency and supported by the efforts of U.S. ¡V AEP and FCS. Mission participants met with representatives of trade associations, government officials, and pre-selected individual business representatives. Most of the companies that participated have secured business based on contacts made during the mission (including San-I-Pak of Tracy, Calif., and STS Consultants of Green Bay, Wisc., whose success stories are featured in this issue of Environmental Export News).

Their examples show that solid product or service offerings, combined with market research and due diligence, can lead to lucrative opportunities in India.

ETI has just released a completely new edition of India Environmental Technologies Export Market Plan. Last published in 1996, this comprehensive environmental market study includes individual sector analyses, competitive assessments, and information on key market contacts. Copies of the report are available upon request from ETI. It is also available on the office¡¦s Web site at www.environmental.ita.doc.gov. For additional assistance with environmental exports to India, contact Marc Lemmond of ETI at tel. (202) 482-3889 or via
E-mail at marc_lemmond@ita.doc.gov.

U.S. suppliers of environmental products and services have found India to be a receptive and profitable market in recent years. As India globalizes its economy and struggles to cope with environmental concerns exacerbated by its high population growth and urbanization, U.S. solution ¡V providers are discovering increasing opportunities.

In 1999, India¡¦s environmental technologies market was estimated at approximately $4.9 billion (based on market potential calculations and estimations, not actual revenues). The largest segments of this market are energy efficiency and renewable energy ($2.5 billion), water and wastewater treatment ($1.2 billion), and air pollution control ($408.0 million). The market grew at an average annual rate of 10 ¡V 15 percent in the 1990¡¦s. However, the Southeast Asian financial crisis and a slowdown in India¡¦s industrial production are blamed for a drop in environmental market growth to around 10 percent in more recent years. Even in the face of the slowdown, the market for environmental technologies has consistently maintained a growth rate approximately twice that of the country¡¦s GDP.

Now, an improving regulatory structure, activism in the Indian judiciary, improved public environmental education, and rising funding (both domestic and international) for environmental projects are bolstering market growth. In the regulatory arena, key market-driving developments include:

Clean Energy ¡V New ¡§coal beneficiation¡¨ rules from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) are reinforcing demand for clean coal technologies;

Air Pollution ¡V More stringent vehicular emissions standards are being enforced in India as of this spring. These standards are set to be stiffened from now through 2005 until they match Euro I and Euro II levels;

Hazardous Waste ¡V Revised biomedical waste-management rules and increasing private-sector investment in health care are boosting demand in this sector.

From the Government of India, one positive market signal is that national and state-level government environmental spending has been on the increase in India, rising nearly 20 percent over the past five years. Another is that tariffs on environmental goods have been targeted for reductions. Customs duties on most pollution-control equipment, for example, have been reduced to 25 percent. Additionally, in an attempt to speed conversion to natural gas vehicles, the government of India has reduced duties to 5 percent on a number of specific items recognized as being required for that conversion.

More recently, the California Environmental Business Council (CEBC), the Environmental Technologies Export Program of the California Trade and Commerce Agency, and the Department of Commerce¡¦s Office of Environmental Technologies Industries (ETI), collaborated on an energy and environmental mission to India from February 13 ¡V 19, 2001. The mission was led by Jim Miwa of the Environmental Technologies Export Program of the California Trade and Commerce Agency and supported by the efforts of U.S. ¡V AEP and FCS. Mission participants met with representatives of trade associations, government officials, and pre-selected individual business representatives. Most of the companies that participated have secured business based on contacts made during the mission (including San-I-Pak of Tracy, Calif., and STS Consultants of Green Bay, Wisc., whose success stories are featured in this issue of Environmental Export News).

Their examples show that solid product or service offerings, combined with market research and due diligence, can lead to lucrative opportunities in India.

ETI has just released a completely new edition of India Environmental Technologies Export Market Plan. Last published in 1996, this comprehensive environmental market study includes individual sector analyses, competitive assessments, and information on key market contacts. Copies of the report are available upon request from ETI. It is also available on the office¡¦s Web site at www.environmental.ita.doc.gov. For additional assistance with environmental exports to India, contact Marc Lemmond of ETI at tel. (202) 482-3889 or via E-mail at marc_lemmond@ita.doc.gov.