Photo Credit: Evonik Evonik Coating Additives is set to introduce two innovative defoamers, TEGO Foamex 16 and TEGO Foamex 11, at the American Coatings Show (ACS) 2024, April 30 – May 2, at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. These new additives are designed to improve the sustainability and performance of waterborne architectural coatings. TEGO Foamex 16 is a siloxane-based defoamer concentrate that provides an exceptional balance of defoaming efficiency and compatibility, particularly for low to medium PVC coatings.  TEGO Foamex 11, a siloxane-based defoamer emulsion, is optimized for high PVC coatings. With 15 percent active ingredient, it is a highly effective, more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional mineral oil-based defoamers. Michael Zink, Head of Evonik Coating Additives Americas, emphasizes the importance of these new products: “The launch of TEGO Foamex 16 and TEGO Foamex 11 shows how Evonik Coating Additives, together with our cu...

The chlor-alkali market faced a tumultuous year in 2022 and was rocked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This led to skyrocketing oil and gas prices just as the market was beginning to stabilise from the pandemic. PVC demand showed great strength early in 2022, with high consumption across Europe and the US. With interest rates low, housing and construction sectors thrived in the first half of the year. By H2 however – as inflation continued to rise – banks increased interest rates to combat it. The move turned building sectors globally as mortgages became less affordable and investment waned.  While the construction sector’s seasonality tends to decrease PVC consumption towards the end of the calendar year, the demand destruction witnessed in 2022 went beyond this. The resulting reduction in chlor-alkali operating rates, particularly in Europe, resulted in an incredibly tight caustic soda market.  Source: Tecnon OrbiChemDemand destruction in 2022 Asi...

The petrochemical industry is facing financial difficulty with pressure on prices and margins, this has discouraged capacity expansion, investment in the sector is severely lagging demand growth. This is making the “Make in India” campaign infructuous. There are already large imports and huge outflow of foreign exchange. The situation would get aggravated with burgeoning trade gap. In the above back-drop, FICCI would like to make the following submissions for the Government’s considerationFeedstock and Inputs (i) Feedstock is the major component of cost in petrochemicals. While in the Budget 2014-15, partial relief was given by reducing the import duty from 5% to 2% on feedstock like Ethane, Propane and Butane, duty on the largest feedstock for the industry – Naphtha, remained unchanged, Naphtha is also used for power and fertilizer production, wherein for fertilizer production it is exempt from import duty. This anomalous situation needs to be cor...