The main reason for this, points out one of the leading manufacturer, is that production of phthalocyanine has been banned in the European countries. As a result of this exports of the products has increased substantially.

However, prices have remained more or less stagnant during the past one year both in the domestic as well as international market. The reason for the price to be low in the domestic market is because supply of phthalocyanine far exceeds its demand.

There are lot of small scale units operating in the Ankleshwar belt of Gujarat that manufacture the whole range of phthalocyanine pigments. Apart from this prices of raw material, mainly phthalic anhydride and copper has remained low throughout the year. As far as the international prices are concerned, exports from China andsouth east asian countries has been very competitive mainly because of their large scale of operations and depreciation of their currencies.

A trader pointed out that exports during the year 1997-98 and the current fiscal has been far more than that in 1996-97. This point is also substantiated by the raw material suppliers of phthalocyanine, phthalic anhydride, who point out that procurement by manufacturers of phthalocyanine has increased four folds. Phthalocyanine pigments are used by the paints industry, plastics, as textile pigments, printing ink etc.