Chemicals are key ingredients for essential commodities like pharmaceuticals, foods, medical devices, PPE, etc. Manufacturers are not able to produce chemicals even if permitted to operate.

Mumbai

Keeping the importance of the chemical & petrochemical (C&PC) sector in mind for the well-being of the nation during current Covid 19 outbreak, the Indian Chemical Council (ICC) has urged the government to declare the entire C&PC sector value chain as ‘essential’ during the current Covid 19 led lockdown period. The chemical industry in India has multiple cross-linkages to other industries and thus it is a critical industry in the value chain of essential goods like food, edible oils, drugs, fertilizers, among others.

The chemical industry is the industry of industries and is currently suffering due the global lockdown because of the rapid outbreak of the current epidemic. Many essential supplies from C&PC sector are either stuck at various checkpoints in the country, or the manufacturers are not able to produce even if the permitted to operate, due to their employees not being able to report to work.

According to Indian Chemical Council, “Chemicals are indispensable and it gets widely used in our modern lives. Chemicals have a direct interface with essential commodities like pharmaceuticals. For instance, very few realize that key raw materials for manufacturing of Paracetamol, an essential drug, include a large number of chemicals like benzene, sulphur, caustic, chlorine, hydrogen, nitric acid, sulphuric acid, acetic anhydride. Due to lock down of the majority of C&PC plants, many of paracetamol plants are being forced to shut. Also, polymers are life-saving with applications in catheters, blood transfusion pipes, blood bags, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), etc. Therefore, the plastic downstream industry should also be treated essential due to its vast application in agriculture, potable water, food, process-flow etc. Chemical plants in China, Korea, Taiwan, Europe and US are already operational, as they consider chemicals as essential.”

In also implies in case of many essential life-saving drugs which cannot be manufactured without an uninterrupted supply of key chemicals. Foodgrains, the most essential commodity for any country, cannot continue its production without judicious usage of agrochemicals and fertilizers. Irrigation process in agriculture is also suffering without durable and economical water pipes.

On highlighting the operational aspect of the sector, Indian Chemical Council, added, “In most continuous processes, there is a certain minimum turndown ratio, ie, the minimum percentage of rated capacity that a plant can operate which can vary from 50-80%, depending on the product. Also, continuous process plants cannot be easily stopped and started.”

While domestic demand in other countries has dropped sharply as also exports, the inventory is piling up. This poses a dumping danger for countries like India. Export incentives provided by many countries will further add burden to the industry in India.

ICC strongly recommends the chemical sector should be declared as essential and be exempt from lockdown. To ensure safe restart of the sector’s operations, ICC as the leading Indian chemical industry body, recognised by the International Council of Chemical Association (ICCA) has interacted with its peers in CEFIC (Europe) and ACC (America), and has procured guidelines on safe operations.

These guidelines include hygiene and sanitisation at the workplace, social distancing, and all other guidelines covering safe operations which are in line with the Government’s objectives of preventing the recurrence of any COVID 19 spread.

Indian chemical industry is always pro-active and we are sure we will convert this adverse situation into new opportunities which will ultimately benefit the Indian chemical industry and Indian economy with timely support from the ever cooperative government.