Panel Perspectives: India | 37
Above: Greenply’s Chittoor MDF facility
impetus for growth for many leading local players, leading to sky-rocketing demand for ready-made furniture in the Indian market. For example, in the case of Greenpanel, this fuelled the company’s stock price, which grew by 26 times from May 2020 to April 2022.
Most local analysts predict bright prospects for the Indian board sector within the next several years. That will also be due to expected growth of the country’s furniture and housing sectors. Currently, the Indian central government
is continuing to undertake certain decisive measures to reduce the housing shortages in the country, which at present is estimated at about 50 million units. In the next several years, there are plans
to build more than 60 million houses across 205 cities in nine states of the country. In addition, the growth of retail, hospitality and healthcare sectors have raised the demand for the commercial real estate. That will fuel the demand for panels in the local market. According to Indian analysts in the field of boards and timber business, rapid urbanisation will also contribute to the further growth of the sector (with over 40% of the local population expected to be settled in urban areas by 2030). Many
of those people would strive for a better standard of living as their per capita income increases, which will lead to the decline of the replacement cycle for furniture from the current 8-10 years to five to seven years. Still, despite the existence of major
players, the Indian panels market is characterised by the generally low level of consolidation and a high number of smaller players. As a rule, the quality of their products is significantly lower than those of the major players of the market. In this regard, most analysts expect that
the share of current market leaders will only continue to grow. Most of these companies are interested in the expansion of their co-operation with western partners for many of which the Indian market has become one of the biggest priority areas given their exodus from Russia and Ukraine – once important emerging markets for them.
The expansion of local production will
also contribute to the decline of imports, which accounted for a significant share in the Indian panels market in the past.
Above: CenturyPly is a big name in the Indian wood-based panels sector
www.wbpionline.com | August/September 2023 | WBPI
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