The Indian adhesives and sealants market is pegged at about Rs 60 billion per annum and is expected to grow significantly at a CAGR of 6.33 per cent and 9.47 per cent, respectively, during the forecast period (2018-2023). Sealants can be used for various applications like building construction and automotive industry. The sealants market for automotives is mainly with Henkel, Sika, Bostik for the glass fixing. Sanjay Bhalla, CEO, Mapei Construction Products India, shares more on industry trends...

What are the factors driving demand for adhesives and sealants?
India, with rising industrial and economic development, is seeing an increasing demand from various end-user sectors of adhesives, such as the building and construction sector, footwear industry, and wood-working and joinery industry.

The adhesives and sealants market is primarily boosted by emerging economies, technological advancement, globalisation and increased usage of adhesives and sealants to seal and protect materials in an environment-friendly manner. Packaging, automotive, construction and furniture industries are the major drivers of the adhesives and sealants industry. Technology innovation to find newer, better and faster products that will dramatically influence the cost-effectiveness of the customers operations is one of the major drivers of this industry.

The Indian packaging industry accounts the highest share of adhesives and sealants industry in terms of revenue. Adhesives are widely used in paper bonding, owing to their physical properties. Their applications range from corrugated box construction and lamination of printed sheets to packaging materials used for all types of consumer products. Therefore, the overall market for adhesives and sealants is expected to have a high growth in India, as its end-user industries are showing a positive growth in the country. This positive growth is attributable mainly to the strong demand from the food and beverage packaging sector.

The Indian adhesives and sealants market is anticipated to grow with the growth of the packaging industry.With the growth in the construction industry, the end-user and specifier are now going for high shore hardness, good movement accommodation factor and better resistance to atmospheric conditions for the sealant industry. Even in road construction, the new highways that are coming up are pavement quality concrete construction – a concrete road having joints. The joint market has now graduated to high-end sealants, which has better elongation and can take the traffic movements.

Introduce us to your new launches and offering.

Adhesives can be tile adhesives, further categorised into cementitious, epoxy and polyurethane for the construction; and also for automotives. Mapei India adhesives are growing at the rate of 25-30 per cent annually. We have two manufacturing plants in India. Our adhesives are as per international norms confirming to EN standards.

Mapei India has launched high-end fire-retardant adhesives for railway and commercial vehicles. The adhesives are approved by leading manufactures like Bombardier, BEML and international coach manufacturers.

Earlier, the market had been using normal adhesives, but with increase in safety norms as per the requirement of the market, the government has introduced high-end standards for the new coaches. And, Mapei is focussing on the same market so as to cater to safety standards.

Any maintenance services that you offer along with your products?
Mapei India provides all the technical support for adhesives and sealants. Our laboratory is fully-equipped to test the materials used in the industry. Mapei India has professionally trained installers to provide the maintenance services to the end-users.