India aims to double chemical trade with China

India aims to double its trade in chemicals with China within a year and to increase its share of Chinese organic chemical market from the current 0.9 percent to two percent in the next two years, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Monday.

"There is tremendous potential for increasing organic chemical exports to China," PTI quoted director at the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals Harmeet S. Singh as saying.

India's share in the China's organic chemical market was expected to go up from the current 0.9 percent to two percent in two years, she added.

Singh was speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-organized China Chemical meet here.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed on the occasion between the CII and the Shanghai Chemical Industry Association to promote industry to industry cooperation between the two countries.

According to industry estimates, the trade in chemicals between India and China registered about 50 percent growth in 2003-04 at 1.5 billion US dollars as against one billion US dollars in the previous year.

"The chemicals trade between the two countries is growing at a high speed and the MoU is certainly going to facilitate it and take the total value of trade to about three billion US dollars by the end of next fiscal," said S. N. Singh of the Indian Chemical Manufacturers Association.