Goal of every industry is to be eco-friendly

In an interview Ashish Soparkar, Managing Director, Meghmani Organics Limited with Chemical Today magazine opens up about the global trends in the pigments industry and ways in which pesticide industry is looking for a transformation with focused chemicals.

By Shivani Mody

Global trends in the pigment Industry

The trends are towards technological developments to match the increasing demand for digital ink. There is also a growing demand for high-performance pigments and for environmentally friendly products among the end user industry. For instance, instead of oil-based pigments, people are moving towards water based pigments as oil is a nuisance for the environment. So, end users want user-friendly pigments that are less dusty and easier to handle, etc. These trends are more prevalent in developed countries and less enforced in developing countries. But ultimately, the entire world will be moving in this direction.

Technology development in titanium dioxide, iron oxide and carbon black pigment

The market share of carbon black is the largest in Asia with over 37 percent and shows a growth rate of around 3-4 percent per annum. The growth rate of titanium dioxide is around 3-4 percent per annum and iron oxide is growing at a rate of over 4 percent with major markets in Asia, America and the Middle East due to the growing construction industry.

Growth potential for these pigments

Coatings, construction and packing ink hold a major potential. Packing industry is growing a big way and is showing a two-digit growth. Today every product or item is sold with proper packaging. These packages need to be printed well for the identification and hence pigments play an important role.

In construction, the use of plastic doors, plastic fittings are rising and hence pigments play an important role in painting and colouring. Also, new trends in paint application are encouraging the growth of pigments.

Overall, the pigment industry will grow with the growth of population. It will also grow with the increase in disposable income, the rising standard of living and the growth in the packaging industry.

Trends in the pesticides industry

Even in pesticides industry, people want more environmentally friendly products with lesser mortality dose. The products should be easy to apply, with targeted effect. For instance, the pesticide applied on rice crop should kill only the insect around the rice grain and not the rice itself. And after killing the insects, it should disintegrate and not harm the consumers.

Challenges faced by pigment and pesticide industry

These industries face almost similar challenges including – increasing environmental regulations, unhealthy competition from unorganised sector, volatility in raw material prices and the global overcapacity. The cost of most of the raw materials is affected by the crude prices. And with the globalisation of supplier and customer base, many pigment companies are getting vertically integrated. So the free customers available for selling pigments are getting reduced. These are the challenges in pigment and the pesticide industry.

Meghmani business strategies for pigments and pesticides

Meghmani Organics Limited is one of the leading pigment manufacturer in blue and green in the world and we hold around 8 percent of global market share. We have three manufacturing plants- two for blues and one for green, and we export to over 75 countries even for the most critical and demanding applications.

Our pesticides business is still not as big as our pigments business. We are a vertically integrated pesticides manufacturer. We make the basic chemicals, pesticide intermediates, and technical guide pesticides from which we even make formulation. All in all, we cover the entire value chain.

The global pesticides market is around $55 to 60 billion. Hence there is a lot of scopes for Meghmani to grow. In pigments, we have achieved a leading position in blue and green. From here the growth can be a little difficult.

Growth strategy for pesticides business

In the pesticides business, we want to focus on the type of relationships where we get into contract manufacturing with multinationals. It will be very difficult to set up a manufacturing plant outside India. However, we have plants available in India and we can serve multinationals from our manufacturing facility in India. We also want to expand our products with formulated pesticides and raise our share considerably in India. We definitely aim to grow from a Rs 80 crores business to Rs 250 crores in the next 3 years.

Strategic steps to take the pigments business forward

We manufacture blue crude and value-added blue pigments. In future, instead of selling blue crude which is sold as a low value-added product, we want to convert all our blue crude to value-added products.

Focus on research and development

All our manufacturing sites have its individual R&D centres to cater to the needs of each plant. We have a Government of India’s science department approved laboratory at one of our sites, and we are working towards a GLP certification. It will be a feather in our cap. We spend about 2 percent of our turnover on R&D. Our main aim is to develop products with better applications.

We also try to improve our environmental load and reduce waste. In agrochemicals too, we follow the same along with doing several types of research in collaboration with various agriculture universities across the country like agrochemical universities in Vallabh Vidhyanagar, Junagadh in Gujarat, others in Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata etc.

Improving new product development and pipeline

In pigments, we have gone for very high-end 15.4 blue pigments which are used for fibre grade, auto refinishes, digital inks etc, which can take the higher load of inks and dispersions. In pesticides, we are currently trying to redefine our products, however, the new products need to come from the large multinationals, and from there we can manufacture and optimise the process.

Green chemistry or sustainability – the road ahead

We look into individual reactions and try to see that the conversion is better. That way the product is better and wastage come down. Then the wastage goes through pollution control treatment in plants, approved by the state’s pollution control board so that all discharge meets every regulatory requirement. At the same, we put emphasis on planting trees in every free space available. We have planted more than 50,000 trees in all our premises altogether.

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