The Indian Particle board Industry has witnessed a steady growth over last 10 years where number of plants have crossed the half century mark. With particle board manufacturing lines springing up in every region of the country, viability of large size plants has come under question. Any big plant needs a structured and formal work culture which has been a weak area in case of particle board industry so far. The Kucth-Surashtra region alone house around two dozen plants and has emerged as a biggest manufacturing hub for wood-based particle board manufacturing during last five years. Many of the bagasse board players have also entered in wood-based segment hence bringing price based selling as a weapon.
The quality parameters in a particle board material has taken a back seat particularly in case of retail led market consumption. The OEM led market is primarily buying from organized brands, where slowdown has caused a subdued phase lately. The unorganized players have been operating on almost 20 to 25% lesser price compared to branded particle board manufacturers. The brands operating in organized segment and their stockiest e.g Action Tesa, Century, Associate, Mapple etc, often express frustrations over prevailing market scenario where operating margins are pressed at the bottom if analyzed on the basis of return on investments.
Indian Particle board Industry largely comprise of production capacity ranging from 100 to 250 cubic meters manufacturing capacity, except one large Associate board plant located in southern region. With more than 50 mother board and pre-lam plants in the country, Particle board prices will continue to sell below price material in 2020 too. The OEMs will have to depend on imports and existing few brands who are offering the material under pressure from over supply emerging from unorganized segment. In a nutshell, year 2020 will continue to see more of average particle board supply growth, check on prices and arrival of 3 to 5 new plants to further crowd the market, on the contrary demand will pick up some pace in second half on 2020, following more brands coming to India to take the benefit of large middle class consumers market.