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METTLER TOLEDO’s Collect+™ Software for Productivity Enhancement with IIoT Potential of Weighing Equipment

Chemical Industry Digest
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METTLER TOLEDO’s Collect+™ Software for Productivity Enhancement with IIoT Potential of Weighing Equipment

Recent developments surrounding Industry Internet of Things are facilitating a major paradigm shift in manufacturing. Traditional production hierarchy, with centralized control, is shifting towards a decentralized self-organization, in which the product independently communicates with the production devices and actively intervenes in the production process.

Weighing Equipment’s Digitalization
As measuring technologies evolve, digitization has become a core element of innovation.

As a result, an intelligent measuring device or sensor provides more than just accurate measuring values. In addition they can provide qualified real-time status information about the manufacturing process, collect measuring results and steer production equipment. Measuring devices, such as weigh modules, platforms and terminals, can be built into highly modular assembly lines and conveyor belts. There they can be either automated or operated manually. Despite increasing automation, manual work will not disappear in modern factories. Assembly, quality checks and material handling is still done by operators on manual workplaces. Manufacturers are now looking for equipment that allows them to integrate these workstations into their systems.

On the operational side, innovative interfaces, user guidance and intuitive handling features can enable productivity potential in factories today.

Industry Internet of Things and Various Workplaces
Not only automated production lines benefit from IIoT, manual workplaces also can increase productivity when they can overcome the challenges of the novel interaction between people, machines and data. Workers have to manage faster processes, a higher degree of digitalization and a greater variety of applications. In addition, they have to deliver continually high quality while product customization increases. That is why it is important to bring together efficiency, ergonomics and data integration.

1. Intelligent Logistics
Start production supervision at your factory gates. Review the deliveries from your suppliers with measuring equipment such as floor and bench scales. Floor scales can count bulk shipments of parts and components whilst compact scales apply when receiving small or valuable material. Weighing devices feed weighing results to your network and prevent over- or out-of-stock situations.

2. Use Warehouse Entry to Gather Data
Use bench scales in warehousing to perform picking tasks, cycle counts and prepare exact deliveries for intra logistics. Get orders from your ERP systems and send back the results of your operation. Weighing terminals feature advanced human-interface functions, such as user prompting, for error-free handling and speedy processing.

3. Innovative HMI’s Increase Handling Speed by 30%
Reduce waste and quality cases with innovative piece-counting and quality check solutions. Scale management software saves all article records and makes recalling article data error-free and fast. Together with the color Weight® result indication this speed-up quality checks even if the product variety increases significantly.

4. Monitor Production Flow and Worker Efficiency in Real Time
METTLER TOLEDO’s Collect+™ software captures production-weight and process data from every scale on your shop floor and visualizes it in an easy to understand dashboard. Use data for audits, quality initiatives and process optimization.

5. Preventative Maintenance with Remote Equipment Monitoring
Cloud-based remote monitoring of weigh modules, load cells and scales prevents downtime. Remote support facilitates fast repairs and reduces the need for on-site interventions. All data transfer is protected with third-party accredited security measures.

About METTLER TOLEDO
METTLER TOLEDO is a leading global supplier of precision instruments and services. The company has strong leadership positions in a wide variety of market sectors and holds global number-one market positions in many of them. Specifically, METTLER TOLEDO is the largest provider of weighing and analytical instruments for use in laboratory and in-line measurement in demanding production processes of industrial and food retailing applications.

For more details contact:
Phone -1800 22 8884 / 1800 1028460
Email-sales.mtin@mt.com

NEOGEN Chemicals Ltd – Multiple Openings

Chemical Industry Digest
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NEOGEN Chemicals Ltd

We are a Speciality Chemical manufacturing company currently having factory sites at Mahape (Navi Mumbai), Karakhadi (Vadodara, Jambusar Road), Dahej EZ (Bharuch) and Head office at Thane with an annual turnover exceeding Rs. 300 crores and targeting Rs. 500 Crores shortly, serving global pharma /Agrochemicals / Engineering and electronic industry.

Started since 1991 by promoters with IIT background and currently growing at around 35% per annum, having export nearly 50% to Europe, Japan, and USA. We are setting up new Production unit at Dahej SEZ for exports and expanding at Karakhadi, Vadodara site. We are looking for following senior appointments to lead teams and be a part of our growth journey.

General Manager- Operations
Chemical Engineer or chemistry Post graduate with minimum 25 plus years of experience in field of chemical Manufacturing managing cross-functional team of more than 100 employees consisting of production, maintenance, effluent control IR, Administration, stores and logistics. He will be responsible for production efficiency and Management reporting Position based at Dahej SEZ (Bharuch).

VP/GM-QA/QC
He should be Ph.D. in Chemistry / Chemical Engineering with having more than 20 years of experience in Quality assurance and quality control in API, Bulk Drugs or API intermediates Plant Supplying to pharma Companies. He should be well versed with ICHQ7A/GMP/IMS systems. This opening will be at Mahape Navi Mumbai/ Karakhadi-Vadodara site, with responsibility of all sites.

Team Leader R&D (Inorganics Chemistry)
PhD in inorganic Chemistry with Minimum 5 to 7 years experience in Pharma/ Speciality Chemicals. Should be well versed with synthesis techniques, exposure to different reactions, literature search techniques, capable to develop the process of new product, intermediates, ability to provide analytical support, knowledge of analytical instrument and Technology transfer. He will be posted at our R & D Centre situated at Karakhadi-Vadodara site.

Team leader R&D (Flow Chemistry)
Candidate with Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and further specialized in Flow Chemistry with 2 to 5 years experience in the field and capable to generate data for scale-up trials and plant level. He will be posted at our R&D center situated at Karakhadi-Vadodara site.
Sr Manager Banking & Treasury

He/she should be CA/MBA (Finance) having more than 10 to 12 years of experience in banking and treasury, who shall be responsible for preparing bank proposal, CMA, assisting CFO, Banking relationship, corporate finance, MIS and cash flow management in-depth knowledge of accounting with Ind AS will be preferred. This opening will be for H.O at Thane.

Please mail your CV to hr@neogenchem.com or send to Neogen Chemicals Ltd., 1002/1003 10th Floor, Dev Corpora, Opp Cadbury Junction, off  Pokhran Road No. 1 Khopat, Thane (West) 400601 within 15 days from publication of this add.

Note:  Please contact the Company above directly on the website or Email id Provided

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd – Various Openings

Chemical Industry Digest
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Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.
Western Offshore Unit, Mumbai

Walk-in-Interview for engagement of field Medical officers (onshore) for Uran and Pathologist for Panvel (On Contract basis W.E.F. Date of Joining in 2020 Upto 30.06.2020)

ONGC, WOU, Mumbai requires Field Medical Officers (Posting at various Offshore Installations), Field Medical Officer (Onshore posting) for Urban & Pathologist (for Panvel) on contract basis to meet the contingency requirements with the following job specifications:

SI No Duty Type Name of Post No. of posts Qualification & Experience Remuneration (Per month) Date of Interview
1 Full Time –Onshore Duty (14 days on/off) posting in Uran Field Medical Officers (FMO) 1 (01-UR) M.B.B.S. Experience Desirable Rs 75,000/- 26.02.2020
2 Full time –Offshore Duty (14 days o/off) Posting at Various Offshore Installations Field Medical Officers (FMO) 12 (05-UR, 03-OBC, 02-SC, 01-ST, 01-EWS) M.B.B.S. Experience Desirable Rs 75,000/- 26.02.2020
3 Visiting Doctors for 02 (Two) Hours (03) Three times a week (onshore posting at panvel) Pathologist 1 (01-UR) MD(pathology)/ MD (Pathology & Microbiology) OR MBBS with Post Graduate Diploma in Pathology & Bacteriology/ Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical pathology Rs 2,000/- Per visit of 2 Hours 26.02.2020

For detailed information and registration Kindly visit ONGC website www.ongcindia.com


Note:  Please contact the Company above directly on the website or Email id Provided

Gail (India) limited – Various Openings

Chemical Industry Digest
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Gail (India) limited

Career Opportunities as Executive Trainee – 2020

Gail (India) Limited, a Maharatna PSU is looking for committed, vibrant and passionate young Graduate Engineers desirous of joining Gail as executive Trainee  (ET) in the disciplines of Chemicals & Instrumentation by using GATE – 2020 score.

On the above matter, Gail has already published an advertisement in major National Dailies in the month of September, 2019directing the prospective candidates who wish to apply for the post of executive trainee in the above disciplines in Gail, to first register for Gate-2020 exam in the relevant paper.

Candidates, who have applied for appearing in Gate – 2020 in the relevant paper and received GATE-2020 Admit Card and also meeting the eligibility requirement and other conditions specified in the detailed advertisement hosted on GAIL
website: www.gailonline.com may now apply online in GAIL through GAIL
website: www.gailonline.com for the relevant post indicating their GATE-2020 Registration Number. Application without valid GATE-2020 Registration Number will be rejected. The relevant link for submission of application online by the candidates will be made available from 1100 hrs. on 12.02.2020 to 1800 hrs. on 12.03.2020 in the “Careers” section of GAIL website: www.gailonline.com.

Candidates can view the detailed advertisement with post and category wise vacancy position, eligibility conditions and instructions for filling online application by visiting Careers Section of GAIL website: www.gailonline.com.

Important  Dates:

Opening of GAIL website for online submission of application by candidates. 1100 Hours on 12.02.2020
Last date for submission of online application in GAIL by candidates 1800 Hours on 12.03.2020

For latest update on online examination dates and other information regarding GATE 2020, please visit: http://gate.iitd.ac.in

Regd. Office: GAIL Bhawan, 16, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066 Ph: 011-26172580
Email: career@gail.co.in Website: www.gailonline.com

 

Note:  Please contact the Company above directly on the website or Email id Provided

Hegde & Hegde Pharmaceutica LLP – Various Openings

Chemical Industry Digest
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Hegde & Hegde Pharmaceutica LLP

Product Executive / Product Manager

Multicrore, Fast Growing all India Pharmaceutical Company, Leader in Skin Care, Requires a Product Executive/ Product Manager.

MBA Marketing (Science Graduate) with Upto one year Pharmaceutical Sales experience (Age Below 27 years) may apply.

Job profile involves Market Research, Product Management, Brand Building, Product Development, and New Product launch, Ample Opportunity for Growth, During Probation.

Emoluments Rs. 4.15 lakhs CTC/ Attractive Bonus after Confirmation.

Interested candidates email your resume within five days at: shreyas@hhpharma.com

Note:  Please contact the Company above directly on the website or Email id Provided

How Chemical Companies Benefit from the Experience Economy

Stefan Guertzgen
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How Chemical Companies Benefit from the Experience Economy

Abstract
To feel or experience from a business engagement started with customer experience mainly in the consumer products business. Today it has extended to even knowledge industries like the chemical industry where experiencing or feeling can be leveraged to include all stake holders from customers primarily to employees to supply chain people & suppliers and all else. With digital technologies this has become easier than before. The benefits from promoting the ‘feel’ or ‘experience’ emotion could be multifarious for the chemical industry as described in this article.

Today, organizations thrive or fail based on the experiences they deliver. In a world of abundant choice, experiences differentiate brands and products, and foster customer and employee loyalty. Great experiences drive customer loyalty, upsell and expansion, employee engagement, brand quality, improved retention and referral, and ultimately, greater shareholder value. Conversely, unfavorable experiences lead to increased churn, lower productivity, diminished competitiveness, and value destruction. With the advent of digital communication channels, favorable or unfavorable experiences can be shared instantly and spread virally, amplifying these impacts and raising the stakes for organizations of all types and sizes. However, 80 percent of CEOs still believe they are delivering a superior experience, but only 8 percent of customers agree. This “experience gap” leads to failed product launches, delayed inventory shipments and high customer churn.

In this regard, the chemical industry is no exception, even though when talking about customer experience, people’s minds are more likely to spring towards direct consumer-oriented industries, like Retail, Wholesale or Consumer Products. However, with chemical companies also starting to adopt multi-channel approaches and with consumers pushing for sustainable products and formulations meeting the needs of “cradle to cradle” concepts and the Circular Economy, customer experience is more and more recognized as a growth engine. Some chemical companies even leverage open innovation platforms to crowdsource innovative ideas but, in most cases, they are focused on product and formulation characteristics, rather than on customer experiences along the buying and applying journey. To excel in customer experience, two elements need to be brought together – the “What” and the “Why.”

Let’s first talk about the “What.” Over decades chemical companies have stored myriads of data from day to day operations – be it in research and development, in manufacturing, in running and maintaining assets, in logistics and order fulfillment and in sales. However, all those data almost entirely relate to transactions – in other words: they tell you what has happened, but they don’t tell you why things happened.
Let’s investigate a few examples where “why” matters.

Sample Management
Many chemical companies, particularly specialty manufacturers, easily supply thousands of product or formulation samples per month to customers for testing. However, in many, if not in most cases suppliers do not receive any feedback on for example sample arrival on time and in good condition, performance in lab tests or conversion of sample orders into commercial orders. Sometimes customers may not even know that a chemical company manufactures innovative products accompanied by samples for lab testing. Implementing a truly end to end Lead to Cash Process around sample management with full insights into all “X+O” touchpoints would help chemical customers to:

  • Bundle the right products and provide individualized solutions
  • Review delivery execution model
  • Utilize customer feedback before launch to increase market success of newly introduced products

From a business perspective this would ultimately result in accelerated sales growth, higher customer satisfaction, increased customer retention and increased forecast accuracy.

Attracting and Retaining the Best Talent
The chemical industry, as many other asset intensive industries, is suffering from the issue of aging workforce. Human Resources managers recognize that a significant percentage of their workforce is nearing retirement, and they are not attracting and retaining enough young talent to replace the retiring employees. Diagnosing the root cause is typically a complex, manual process that requires significant time and effort. Bringing in the “why” factor from capturing “in the moment” feedback from current and prospective employees and combining the “what” and the “why” provides the necessary insights for launching dedicated programs in support of:

  • Career planning and development opportunities to attract and retain crucial talent
  • Focus on collaborative and engaging workforce environment to promote employee referrals
  • Develop mentoring and training programs to upskill new hires
  • Optimize HR processes to reduce hiring cycle time
  • Audit training to ensure quality training sessions

As a business result, chemical companies will reduce employee turnover, they will be able to attract highly skilled new talent and increase employee engagement.

Digital Commerce Management
Today, Digital Commerce Managers leverage operational metrics to manage their business. However, metrics like high customer churn rates, long lead times for order fulfillment or e-commerce sales below forecasts suggest that there is a problem, but root causes are mostly not known and drilling down into them would require significant time and effort. Being able to capture and analyze “in the moment” customer feedback to better understand emotions and sentiments around the digital experience could deliver the necessary real-time insights on key experience drivers influencing commerce platform success. In response, new initiatives and programs could be launched, for example:

  • Provide customer self-service access to product documentation including Safety and Technical Data Sheets
  • Use ATP and transportation planning to improve ability to commit to delivery dates
  • Improve web store user interface and content to increase order volume through web channel
  • Use analytics to predict and prevent customer defection

At the end, companies will be rewarded with sales growth and increased customer retention.

Improving Supplier Collaboration
In general, chemical companies have more difficulty getting good service from truck carriers than other industries. Reasons are:

  • Many products are Hazmat’s that can be transported only by specific carriers
  • Loading bulk products is complicated and time consuming
  • Specialized loading and unloading gates/hatches are often required

Low tender acceptance is the consequence and truck availability could become a critical bottleneck at specific plants along with typical operational KPIs falling behind compared to benchmarks, like poor on-time delivery, high total costs of transportation, increasing times for order fulfillment, increasing dwell time charges or high number of Logistics FTE.

Better understanding of the issues from the carrier’s point (the “why”) chemical companies can put in place a set of remedies for improvement, such as:

  • Collaborate with carriers by sharing shipment forecasts
  • Implement site logistics procedures to schedule and optimize loading
  • Implement appointment scheduling with real time alerting about site delays
  • Improve processes around generation of shipment documentation
  • Improve tendering process by including more detailed product information equipment requirements

Finally, those initiatives would result in improved supplier relationships and increased customer satisfaction.

These are just a few examples how understanding customer or supplier sentiments (the “why”) in the chemical industry and embedding those into critical business processes from an end to end perspective can deliver tangible value and drive new business outcome-oriented business models. Leading chemical companies already embed customer sentiment and satisfaction analysis into their entire quality and complaint processes. To achieve breakthrough results, businesses need to move beyond systems of record to new systems of action, specifically designed to intelligently use both Experience, and Operations-data to manage and improve the four core experiences of business – customer, employee, product, and brand.

A recent study from Accenture came to a similar conclusion calling out the synergies between the “O data” minded left brain thinking C-Suite and a group of “X data” minded right brain thinking employees, called “pathfinders” working together and closing the earlier mentioned experience gap. Pathfinders act primarily based on their motivations and perception of self-empowerment when dealing with the companies they work for and buy from. According to Accenture, companies adopting such a whole-brain approach see a positive bottom-line impact and realize on average 22 percent higher revenue growth and 34 percent higher profitability growth.

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Chemingineering | Seabed Mining

K. Sahasranaman (Independent Industry Consultant)
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Chemingineering | Seabed Mining

Polymetallic nodules found on the ocean floor are emerging as alternative sources of Cobalt and Nickel, whose demand is surging on the back of the burgeoning growth of Lithium-ion batteries. Even as the environmental impact of deep sea mining is cloudy, pioneers are forging ahead with underwater trials.

Many attempts have been made to predict when the world will run out of fossil fuels; almost all of them have been proved to be incorrect. The current estimate is that we have a little more than 100 years of coal reserves and 50 years each of both oil and gas. But this conundrum has ceased to excite us, as it has been overshadowed by the looming climate change emergency. Alternatives to fossil fuels have already made significant technological advances and many climate scientists are calling for leaving the fossil fuels under the earth and immediately switch over to the cleaner alternatives. Like fossil fuels, many metals and minerals are also depleting from earth’s crust and this is now beginning to ring alarm bells. Some of these metals and minerals are important constituents of battery, an important driver of renewable energy.

Endangered Elements
According to American Chemical Society, 44 out of the 118 elements in the Periodic Table will vanish by the end of this century. The eight most endangered elements are Helium, Zinc, Gallium, Germanium, Arsenic, Silver, Indium, Tellurium and Hafnium. The applications of some of these most endangered elements are not so well known. Indium tin oxide, for instance, is an important constituent of the touchscreens in smartphones. Helium is required for cooling the superconductive magnetic coils in MRI scanners. Gallium is used to make high quality mirrors and is also extensively used in the semiconductor industry. Tellurium is often used to improve the machinability of copper and stainless steel. Germanium is an important ingredient of photodetectors used in television remotes and automatic opening doors in malls and offices. Many other metals including, Lithium, Magnesium, Chromium, Vanadium, Manganese, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Molybdenum, Palladium, Cadmium, Tin, Antimony, Tungsten, Gold, and Lead face the threat of supply disruptions in future.

Polymetallic Nodules
Covering vast areas of seabed are aggregates of iron and manganese hydroxide, known as Polymetallic Nodules or Manganese Nodules. These are found at depths of 4000 to 6500 meters and range in size from few millimeters to tens of centimeters. In addition to Manganese and Iron, these nodules contain Nickel, Copper and Cobalt in commercially attractive concentrations. Other valuable metals like Molybdenum, Zirconium and Rare Earths are also present in the nodules. The biggest deposits of Polymetallic Nodules have been located in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, in an abyssal plain of the ocean floor, known as Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), which lies between Hawaii and Mexico and spans an area larger than India at 4.5 million square kilometers. The International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN body based in Kingston, Jamaica, set up to regulate the exploration and exploitation of marine non-living resources in international waters, has awarded 16 exploration contracts to assess mining opportunities in the CCZ. The other commercially attractive deposits of Polymetallic Nodules are found in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB), where the ISA has granted exploration rights of 75,000 square kilometers to India. Chennai-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIOT) has undertaken an ambitious project of placing a manned submersible vehicle to crawl the ocean floor at a depth of 6000 meters by 2021.

Cobalt and Nickel
Cobalt and Nickel are driving the new interest in Polymetallic Nodules. The potential of Polymetallic Nodules was known as far back as 1960s. However, it did not take off due to the availability of cheap Nickel and Cobalt from land based deposits. But with land based deposits depleting rapidly, due to a surge in demand for Nickel and Cobalt, two key constituents of Lithium-ion batteries, there is a renewed interest in Polymetallic Nodules. It is currently estimated that CCZ holds 6 times more Cobalt and 3 times more Nickel than all land based reserves.

First Movers
Global Sea Mineral Resources, a Belgian company, was the first to launch a vehicle to crawl on the ocean bed, after signing a 15-year contract with ISA to prospect for Polymetallic Nodules in CCZ. Named Patania, after the world’s fastest caterpillar, the crawler is being tested at depths of 4500 meters to harvest the nodules. Joining the underwater mining race is DeepGreen, a Canadian start-up. Since the nodules contain metals in combinations that do not occur in conventional land ores, current metallurgical processes for extracting and refining need to be modified. DeepGreen claim to have developed a process to fully utilise the nodules with the only waste stream being an iron-rich slag. The argument advanced by promoters of deep sea mining is that more than 60% of the global supply of Cobalt is presently emanating from Democratic Republic Congo, where child labour is rife.

Environmental Impact
Deep sea mining involves deployment of a vehicle that will crawl on the ocean floor vacuuming up the top layer. As the vehicle moves along the seabed, it will create a cloud of sediment or plume that will be carried away by the ocean currents. The material vacuumed by the crawler are pumped up to the mother ship, where the useful nodules will be separated from the unwanted sediments, which will be piped back to the ocean depths creating a second plume. The ocean sediments surrounding the Polymetallic Nodules harbour an extraordinary biodiversity and environmental scientists are rightly worried about the potential impact of disturbing the ocean floor for mining. Sediment accumulates on the ocean floor at the rate of 1 millimeter every 1000 years. Right now, there is little knowledge of the short and long term environmental consequences of deep sea mining. An international team of scientists funded by MIT have carried out fluid dynamic studies to see how deep sea mining would affect the marine environment and their preliminary finding is that local biology will be irretrievably impacted. Further studies are planned later this year by sending down a prototype crawler and developing models that will accurately predict the plume dispersion.

Epilogue
China holds most licenses for deep sea mining. According to one estimate deep sea mining will account for 15% of global supply of critical metals by 2050. Even as environmentalists are up in arms, ISA has drawn up rules and regulations for deep sea mining and they are expected to come into force by end of 2020.

Readers’ responses may be sent to: k.sahasranaman@gmail.com or
chemindigest@gmail.com

Near Stagnation in the Growth of Indian Chemical Industry – Why? – What Remedy?

Chemical Industry Digest
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Near Stagnation in the Growth of Indian Chemical Industry – Why? – What Remedy?

Abstract
This article very succintly analyses what is amiss with the chemical industry in India, on why capacity building is not taking place despite the rising demand for many chemicals – now served through imports.
The article clearly enlists the problems one by one and suggests possible solutions. The author who is a leading chemical industry consultant with indepth knowledge of the industry recommends Indian chemical industry expediting the bio-route to manufacture platform chemicals like methanol and ethanol.

There have been discussions in several forums that Indian chemical industry, which include petrochemicals, agro chemicals, polymers, dyestuffs, pigments, caustic chlorine, soda ash, pharmaceuticals (API) and several others are not registering production growth in tune with the growth in the demand in the country.

As a result, India is becoming net importer of several chemicals, which include bulk chemicals and speciality chemicals.

Further, there have been number of cases, where India was producing products earlier whose production have been totally suspended in the country and Indian requirement are now met by import.

It is necessary for the Indian chemical industry to admit the fact and ground reality about the slow and inadequate growth of chemical industry in India in recent times, which is viewed as near stagnation conditions by several quarters. Based on study and diagnosis, prescriptions have to be evolved to put back the Indian chemical industry on firm path of growth and progress.

What shortfalls and what remedies?
1. Shortfall
Excessive dependence on import of crude oil and natural gas for use as fuel and feedstock.

The frequent fluctuation in the price of imported crude oil and natural gas and lower price of natural gas and crude oil in oil and natural gas producing countries have resulted in increase in import of several chemicals due to inability of the Indian units to compete with imported products in price terms.

Remedial steps
India is large importer of crude oil and natural gas with little prospects for boosting the domestic production significantly.

India has to find appropriate alternate sources for fuel/petrochemical feedstocks.

Given the fact that India has large availability of biomass to produce bio-ethanol and municipal solid waste to produce bio-methanol and also large area of appropriate land for algae cultivation, it appears to be most appropriate to produce bio-ethanol, bio-methanol, algae in the immediate future, which can substitute for crude oil and natural gas for use as feedstock and fuel to a large extent.

Production of bio methanol for use as feedstock, production of bio ethanol for use as fuel (by blending with petrol) and feedstock and algae based bio-fuels and use of them as fuels and to produce derivative products would boost domestic production of chemicals and derivative products and would reduce import levels of crude oil and natural gas, that would result in savings in foreign exchange outflow.

Consumption norm for methanol produced by synthetic route and for production of bio-methanol from municipal solid waste (MSW) in application sectors are the same.
Ethanol from cane molasses and cellulosic bio-ethanol are chemically identical regardless of feedstock used (whether it is produced from starch and sugar based feedstock or cellulosic biomass feedstock).

Methanol is an important building block finding extensive applications in different fields and in the production of number of derivative products, which again are extensively used in diversified sectors. Most of India’s requirement of methanol and its derivative products are imported, resulting in the outflow of huge foreign exchange. India’s methanol plants, using natural gas (imported as LNG) have found it hard to compete with import of methanol coming from Iran and Saudi Arabia, in particular and therefore, several methanol plants in India remain closed.

Ethanol is a basic building block and India is unable to meet the ethanol requirements for various application sectors and therefore, import of ethanol is increasing every year. A number of chemicals which are presently produced from petrochemical feedstocks can be produced from bio-ethanol, which would use biomass as feedstock.

Algae bio-fuel can be produced in large quantities, since appropriate land area are available and suitable tropical conditions are prevalent in India and considering several advantages for India in producing algae bio-fuels and other derivate products.

2. Shortfall
Technology constraint
Remedial steps
As domestic technology efforts are not giving adequate confidence to investors, massive import of technology from abroad is necessary.

3. Shortfall
Investment constraint
Remedial steps
There are not many project promoters in India who have the capacity to make massive investment that are required to set up large scale and globally competitive sized projects.
Therefore, investors from abroad have to be encouraged to invest in setting up large capacity projects in India. Necessary conducive climate have to be promoted in India and appropriate and proactive policy initiatives of the government are needed.

4. Shortfall
Lack of export penetration and lack of global sized trading houses
Remedial steps
Present level of export initiatives is far from adequate and this is mainly due to lack of adequate number of trading houses in India, operating internationally. Large scale export penetration is possible only with the support of large trading houses. Collaborative efforts with global size trading houses are required.

5. Shortfall
Politically inclined environmental activism
Remedial steps
Strong campaign is necessary to ensure responsible environmental activism, so that the approach of the environmentalists do not slide into negativism and become counterproductive.

Some important suggestions
 – Infrastructure hindrances
Manufacturing units in India are still not easy to be setup and run profitably due to variety of factors.

India is a vast and growing economy and its domestic market size itself is large enough to attract manufacturing in scale. However, given a choice between manufacturing in India and importing from abroad, many companies in India find it easier to take the latter option.
Lack of adequate infrastructure facility is one of the biggest hindrances to set up manufacturing units, where supply chains are dispersed globally and it is important to bring raw materials easily and ship finished goods within the country and around the world competitively.

It is hard to dramatically improve infrastructure very rapidly across a vast nation like India, given the investment levels needed and execution difficulty. Government has to play a more active and proactive role.

– Need for appropriate financial packages
Manufacturing in India has to be made sufficiently financially attractive and profitable to lure overseas investors from across the world to India, from destinations such as South East Asia and Middle East that offer very attractive financial packages.

Governments in countries like Singapore have knowledge of what it takes to compete globally and offer financial packages that make it attractive for companies to relocate and compete. The financial package could be a combination of corporate taxes and financial incentives that are sector specific. This needs imagination and an ability to tailor packages to specific sectors and companies, rather than broad policies that may not be good enough.
Along with taxes, Indian corporates have historically been burdened by high interest rates. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, developed economies in Europe, US and Japan have continuously reduced interest rates along with extremely easy monetary policy in the form of quantitative easing to stoke growth. Borrowing costs have plunged in developed countries, making the difference between real interest rates in India and developed countries very high.

While India has successfully battled inflation in the past five years and stabilized domestic prices within 3 to 4% inflation rate, interest rates have not followed downward sufficiently, making real interest rates in India one of the highest in the world. Private capital investment in such high real interest rate scenario has naturally stalled.

– Ease of doing business
While India’s ease of doing business has improved significantly in the past few years, as can be seen in global rankings, there is no uniformity in bureaucratic regulations imposed by states.

States vary vastly in their investor friendliness and are further dependent on party in power. There is no guarantee that contracts that are signed when one party is in power will be honoured or allowed to continue unhindered if the party loses power and is replaced by opposition party. High profile cases like Amaravathi project in Andhra Pradesh have damaged India’s reputation for adhering to sanctity of contracts.

Promoters of high profile, high investment projects are very difficult to attract, unless India can reverse this phenomenon and establish the rule of law in adhering to contracts and make doing business predictable.

Making business predictable with regulatory stability is crucial in sectors that depend not only on competition for success but also have heavy regulatory burden.

The experience of telecom industry in which almost every overseas investor has burnt the fingers and exited the country, inspite of India being one of the largest and fastest telecom markets globally, has soured the mood on regulatory stability in the country.

Constantly changing regulatory policy and government changing the dynamics of competition has put off new investors and even made existing players wanting to quit the industry.

– Need for Investment from abroad
There are constraints in investment for large capacity projects, as many project promoters lack adequate resources.

The hesitant mindset of some project promoters and investors towards setting up of chemical projects are evident.

In such condition, there appear to be no alternative other than resorting to massive investment from abroad for setting up the projects.

– Need to focus on export market
No country in the last two decades that has grown to a middle income country, such as the Asian tigers has achieved growth in export market significantly without export oriented economy.
Being an export economy makes industry adopt world class practices in manufacturing skills and improves the skills of labour and management in the country to compete in the world.
The additional benefits of export oriented economy by transfer of skills and bench marking knowledge through universities and industrial bodies is immense and will lift the manufacturing capability of the entire country.

A similar thing has happened in the IT sector with Indian companies bringing world class software engineering practices to the country that has made the entire industry lift up its skill levels.

– Need for thrust to global trading
Several trading houses in India are small in size and do not have competitiveness and understanding to operate in the export market.

Strengthening the trading houses is a matter of urgency, as trading houses have vital role to play in the export market penetration.

Government should examine this issue carefully and see how it can promote trading houses to grow faster, by initiating appropriate policy measures.

Sense of direction must be given for the country by government
Considering the complexities of the problems faced by India, particularly due to high import dependence on crude oil and natural gas and other factors leading to near stagnation conditions in the chemical and allied industries, Government of India has to work out its strategies and chalk out the firm, time bound programme based on ground realities.

While there is no doubt that massive production of bio-methanol, bio-ethanol and algae bio fuel and derivative products are elegant solution to tackle the multi various inter connected problems in the country and elimination of near stagnation conditions, Government of India and state governments have to fix stage wise time bound targets for achieving the end results.

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Mrs. S F Vakil’s views on the chemical industry in 2020

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Mrs. S F Vakil’s views on the chemical industry in 2020

S F Vakil
Chairperson and Managing Director, Dai-Ichi Karkaria Limited

These are challenging times. Not only is the world in turmoil, there are several disruptive issues in the country impacting the economy and the sentiments towards the economy. All sectors are showing a slowdown, some more than the others.

Being in the specialty chemicals auxiliary business we are both cushioned and impacted by the slowdown. Cushioned, where in the oil field sector there is a gradual turn around and business is starting to recover. Impacted in most other sectors from Paints to Agriculture, where most of our customers are delaying purchases or reducing requirements as they continue to hold stocks.

Though our country, with its burgeoning population and potential consumption patterns has the capability of major growth, there seems to be a mood of caution all around.

Entrepreneurs are no longer taking risks. There is very little innovation taking place. R&D spending is low, resulting in poor technology development. With the growing demand for crude oil in the country and a fall in domestic production, oil import is rising dependence.

With the rising price of crude, there will be some impact on the economy.

For companies servicing the oil sector there will be a considerable upside.

If the government spending on infrastructure improves, it will lend considerable thrust to all industries and will give a boost to the economy. We see 2020 as a year of cautionary optimism and are hopeful of improving the company’s prospects especially for the oil sector. India has as huge potential for specialty chemicals and the decade promises substantial growth in this area.

If the government focuses on improving infrastructure reducing the procedural hurdles (that are often costly), opens up to global opportunities, and focuses more on the economy, there is no reason to believe the situation won’t improve.

Companies that understand the value of R&D are sensitive to their role in the environment and follow safety norms in their chemical processes, will certainly be successful and sustainable.

DIK values its presence in the market for over 60 years and will continue to work towards maintaining its reputation and legacy. The fact that the company has invested close to 180 cr, at a challenging time, speaks loud and clear of its belief in the market and its ability to sustain in the next decade & beyond.

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CEOs’ Views on the Chemical Industry – Mudit Jain, Managing Director, DCW Ltd

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CEOs’ Views on the Chemical Industry – Mudit Jain, Managing Director, DCW Ltd

Mudit Jain
Managing Director, DCW Ltd

Chemical Industry Digest (CID) Q1: Various reports including government data show declining GDP growth. Economists are also talking of challenging times. In the light of these observations, overall how do find the chemical & allied industries, chemical plant & equipment & engineering segments faring?
How is your industry in particular faring and how do you look to 2020 and the rest of the decade unfolding?

Ans Q1: There is a very slack demand from user industries. Many user industries have closed down or reduced their production. This is affecting our caustic soda and soda ash industries both in terms of pricing as well as reduced production. 2020, also appears to be very challenging including rest of the decade upto 2030.

CID Q2: Many chemical company spokespersons say that there is a demand recession, while at the same time there are many platform and other chemicals, APIs etc being increasingly imported, which we can well produce here or increase existing capacities.
Why are companies not investing in new projects or increasing capacities atleast for those chemicals where we have good demand and are being imported?

Ans Q2: Companies are not investing in new projects or increasing their capacities despite there being a good demand because of high costs of production in India. These input costs like, furnace oil, power, interest rates and infrastructure costs like transportation are higher in India than those prevailing overseas. For example, the Calcium Carbide industry closed down in early 2000 due to imports from China. Hence, it is cheaper to import than produce in India. In addition, the input costs supplied by government companies are higher and so also taxes are also very high as many inputs do not get GST set-off like, cement, steel and diesel which is outside the ambit of GST. Therefore, costs in India are much higher as input cost supplied by government companies are higher.

CID Q3: Also our exports of chemicals have come down. What are the reasons for this? Why are we not globally competitive?

Ans Q3: We are not competitive because of high costs of inputs supplied by government companies. The reasons are given as above.

CID Q4: Several challenges and obstacles are cited by industry experts that are affecting the growth and competitiveness of the chemical industry from dearth of feedstocks to technological constraints to infrastructural bottlenecks (roads, ports, railways) to environmental activism to government policies. What is your take on this?

Ans Q4: There is no availability of ethylene which is the basic building block of chemicals and petrochemicals. Moreover, transportation costs in India are much higher making imports cheaper. For example, the freight costs from China to South India is Rs.4000/- per ton whereas, from South India to Delhi it is Rs.6,500/- per ton. Imported material do not suffer any tax on the freight costs compared to very high taxation on petroleum products in India.

CID Q5: Despite the fact that the chemical industry is a technology intensive industry, which needs significant R&D inputs and which can also make our industry competitive, the industry’s spending and results on the R&D front are none too great to write about except for a few exceptions here and there. Why are chemical companies not enthusiastic on the R&D front?

Ans Q5: When manufacturing is uncompetitive where is the question to focus on R&D? However, Indian companies manufacturing Caustic Soda have converted to membrane technology from mercury cell technology in the mid 2000 on a voluntary basis even though, many countries in Europe continued with mercury technology until 2017.

CID Q6: What solutions and measures can you suggest from industry side as well as on the part of the government to drive the growth of chemical & allied industries in India?

Ans Q6: Costs of inputs supplied by government companies should be at international rates, excessive taxation should be removed or all inputs which are taxed should come under the ambit of GST so that there is no tax element in cost of production.

These problems have intensified since 1990, when the costs of inputs supplied by government companies in India increased sharply and imports of chemicals started increasing dramatically. As a result, Indian industry was caught between high costs and cheaper imports. This has resulted in many industries closing down and shifting their operations overseas. There is a trade deficit of nearly $200 billion which remains static as exports of Indian products of not only chemicals are uncompetitive due to government policies. That is why it is imperative that a body like MITI in Japan is formed immediately to address these structural issues.

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